Antibiotics Manual iPad app is a detailed reference resource for Providers

Antibiotics are one of the most important class of medicines used to fight bacterial infections. They can be used to save lives from nearly mortal infections. Like the article that I found says: "Antibiotics find their way into nearly every area of medicine." That is why they should be used properly for a very effective treatment. The article show us a new application for the iPad device called Antibiotics Manual by Spearhead Global Inc, created by two infectious disease physicians from Temple University School of Medicine, which consist of flashcards detailing a particular antimicrobial. The following information are the one that we can found about each antibiotic:

-Basic Characteristics: Mechanism of Action, Mechanism of Resistance, Metabolic Route.
-FDA-Approved Indications
-Side effects/toxicity
-Drug Interactions/Food Interactions
-Dosing
-Special Populations
-The Art of Antimicrobial Therapy

This is a good application to have for us, future pharmacists, to use as a reference in our work. The whole article can be found in the following link:

http://www.imedicalapps.com/2011/10/antibiotics-manual-ipad-app-providers/#more-17847

E-Prescribing and its Advantages

One of the huge advancement in technology for the health care area that we are going to be part is the electronic prescribing (e-prescribing). This is created to simplified the way of prescribing medications to the patient. It is created make the job easy for both the patient and the health care professional.

Ursulla Pennel from EMR Consultant define e-prescribing as an electronic way to generate prescriptions through an automated data-entry process utilizing e-prescribing software and a transmission network which links to participating pharmacies. She also described it as the solution to improve patient safety and reduce sky-rocketing medication costs. It is estimated that approximately 7,000 deaths occur each year in the United States due to medication errors. These errors are predominately due to hand-writing illegibility, wrong dosing, missed drug-drug or drug-allergy reactions. With approximately 3 billion prescriptions written annually, which constitutes one of the largest paper-based processes in the United States, the writing of prescriptions can be streamlined and efficient by using an e-prescribing system.

The use of e-prescribing has many advantages that should help the patient to have a more succesfull treatment and for the health care professional to have a easy way to access and monitor the treatment. Here are some of the advantages that e-prescribing brings:

-Improved patient safety and overall quality of care
-Reduces or eliminates phone calls and call-backs to pharmacies
-Eliminates faxes to pharmacies
-Streamlines the refill's requests and authorization processes
-Increases patient compliance
-Improves Formulary adherence
-Increases patient convenience
-Offers true Provider Mobility
-Improves reporting ability

To read the whole article click the following link:

http://www.emrconsultant.com/education/e-prescribing

Pharmacy Technology: The Future Is Now for Pharmacy Technology

Amanda Baltazar write about the future of the pharmacy profession with the advancement in technology and explain about the popular devices that now we can find in the community pharmacy that we visit. It is a good read to learn about these features that we are going to see in the future as Pharm D's.

A mere 15 years ago, the only pharmacy technology you’d find was a cash register and maybe a pill-counting machine. But a lot has happened since then: Companies have launched new technology and pharmacists and pharmacies have become more accepting of it. Here are some of the most popular devices on the market:

-Robotic Prescription Dispensing Systems
-Central-Fill Systems
-Electronic-prescribing (e-prescribing)
-Telehealth
-Automated Kiosks

You can read the whole article by clicking the following link:

http://pharmacy.about.com/od/Technology/a/Automation-The-Future-Is-Now.htm

RxWorks Suite Solution Revolutionizes Pharmacy Operations

AmerisourceBergen and Franciscan Health System, a network of five hospitals and 650 beds that is headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, partnered to pilot a pharmaceutical supply chain model that would improve hospital pharmacy inventory management, storage, operational efficiency, and medication safety. Using AmerisourceBergen’s RxWorks Suite portfolio of technologies, including dispensing hardware and inventory management software, Franciscan was one of the first hospitals to implement a centralized pharmaceutical fill system in which one hospital receives and processes medication and manages inventory for the entire health system.

This hub-and-spoke fill model increases dispensing and administration safety, decreases inventory costs, and allows key pharmacy staff to be “on the floor” in the hospitals, focusing their efforts on important clinical and patient responsibilities. The health system is also close to fulfilling its goal of bedside, bar-coded medication administration and sees the hub-and-spoke model as the pharmacy distribution method of choice in the future.

The plan called for a total restructuring of Franciscan’s pharmaceutical supply chain process. The existing decentralized fill system, where each hospital received and processed its own medications, was replaced with a centralized fill hub-and-spoke model in which one location served the entire health system. St. Joseph, the largest hospital in the system, was designated as the “hub,” with all the other hospitals acting as “spokes.”

To launch the new model, Franciscan implemented AmerisourceBergen’s RxWorks Suite solution, which includes The FastPak EXP compliance packager with ClinicWorks pharmacy workflow software; FastFind Universal automated storage and retrieval carousels; SupplyWorks inventory management software; and bar-coding stations.

AmerisourceBergen packaged these technologies to streamline the hospital pharmacy medication supply chain process while ensuring that the new automation system would integrate with existing pharmacy hardware.

As one of the first hospitals to implement automation, Franciscan did encounter some initial resistance from pharmacy staff, but stuck to the vision and worked through the challenges. Now, everyone at Franciscan would agree that the struggles were well worth the payoff.

With the health system’s fill process now more than 95% centralized, Franciscan has a markedly safer and more efficient pharmaceutical supply chain process. The new FastFind storage and retrieval carousels have made locating medications easier and more efficient and have reduced the physical space each hospital needs for medication storage.
The medication replacement stock for more than 100 automated dispensing machines’ orders for the entire health system is filled each night by just one or two pharmacy technicians—a job that previously took several hours a day and involved many members of the pharmacy staff at each hospital. Additionally, the automated system has vastly improved inventory management. The health system estimates that in the short time the centralized model has been in effect, it has saved $50,000 in medication inventory costs, a figure it estimates will quickly climb to more than $250,000.

Franciscan has also increased medication safety that the hub-and-spoke model supports. Medication labels are now uniform, streamlined, and easy to read, which reduces the risk of medication errors. Every medication is now distributed with a unique barcode.

Source: U.S. Pharmacist
US Pharm. 2010;35(2):HS-33-HS-34.

Best iPhone / iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists

Our profession of pharmacy is moving with the increase of many technological inventions, using now these tools to help facilitate the pharmacist for the better of our profession with one goal in mind: the health of the patient which should be the ultimate goal. We also should keep in mind that this kind of technology doesn’t substitute what we have learned. These tools should be used as a supplement of everything we know with the ultimate goal in mind. Here’s an article of applications of iPhone and iPod touch that could be very helpful to us in our professional environment:

The iPhone and iPod Touch have created quite a wave in healthcare, and along with the wave has come a plethora of healthcare applications. The user interface on the iPhone/iPod Touch combined with the ease of accessing applications on Apple’s iTunes store and the relatively inexpensive nature of most applications, have made these devices a favorite among healthcare professionals.

With the volume of healthcare related applications available, I’m surprised at how few I actually use. I spend quite a bit of time surfing the app store looking for new applications that I can apply to pharmacy. I’ve downloaded numerous applications, but have deleted most for one reason or another.

My “research” has led to the list below of applications that I find most useful as a pharmacist.

Drug information:
Lexi-Drugs: No surprise here. I’ve been using Lexi-Comp products for years, and have always found them to be a well designed and informative resource. Their paperback Drug Information Handbook is a mainstay in any hospital pharmacy.

EPocrates Rx: I have this on my iPod touch, but don’t use it very often. In fact, I often forget it’s there. I find that EPocrates is popular among physicians, nurses and outpatient pharmacists, while Lexi-Drugs appear to be king of the acute care pharmacy setting.

Honorable mention:
AHFS Essentials: The Essentials iPhone reference is derived from AHFS Drug Information. While the AHFS reference is supposed to be geared toward pharmacists, I’ve never found it that helpful. The one thing I like is the inclusion of off-label uses.

Drugs.com: Hey, it’s free and is accessed via the internet. I wouldn’t use it as a primary drug reference, but it might be helpful in a pinch.

Calculators:
RxCalc: RxCalc is the only pharmacokinetics calculator currently available for the iPhone. It was designed as a tool for pharmacists to perform aminoglycoside and vancomycin kinetics, including new starts using population parameters and dosage adjustments using levels. It does all the basics in a simple to use, straight forward interface.

MedCalc: This is a free medical calculator with an extensive list of formulas (http://medcalc.medserver.be/iphone_formulas.html ). It’s been around since the first Palm Pilots were popular. I don’t use it often, but considering the price (Free) it is nice to have.

Others:
Skyscape: This is a suite a free applications including, RxDrugs, Archimedes Medical Calculator, and Outline in Clinical Medicine. The application also has a nice little feature called MedAlert that gives you timely little notices like drug recall information. I find it useful on occasion.

BLACKBAG: This application provides medical news across multiple specialties and therapeutic areas. You select “subscriptions” to the specialties you like to read about and BLACKBAG delivers pertinent information on a daily basis.

As I said, these are the applications that I’ve found useful as a pharmacist. If you have a favorite application for the iPhone or iPod touch let me know. I’m always interested in adding stuff to my list.

There are hundreds of healthcare related applications in the iTunes App Store and I encourage you to spend some time browsing. Who knows what you’ll find.

-Jerry Fahrni
Pharmacy Informatics and Technology

Advances In Medical Technology: What Does The Future Hold?

Major challenges and opportunities will arise in the health sector in the future. Research in technology that can be applied to this sector is being carried out by several UPC teams.

Although sophisticated medical technology is already available in health systems in developed countries, further advances are constantly being made. As a result of the addition of medical nanotechnology to existing knowledge of molecular and cellular biology, it seems likely that new, more personalised, more accurate and more rapid diagnostic techniques will be devised in the future, as well as new treatments that are also more personalised and promote regeneration of the organism.

You can read the whole article in the following link:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616080133.htm

Source: ScienceDaily

What is a Personal Health Record (PHR)?

The PHR is a tool that you can use to collect, track and share past and current information about your health or the health of someone in your care. Sometimes this information can save you the money and inconvenience of repeating routine medical tests. Even when routine procedures do need to be repeated, your PHR can give medical care providers more insight into your personal health story. Remember, you are ultimately responsible for making decisions about your health. A PHR can help you accomplish that.

Important points to know about a Personal Health Record:
•You should always have access to your complete health information.
•Information in your PHR should be accurate, reliable, and complete.
•You should have control over how your health information is accessed, used, and disclosed.
•A PHR may be separate from and does not normally replace the legal medical record of any provider.

Medical records and your personal health record (PHR) are not the same thing. Medical records contain information about your health compiled and maintained by each of your healthcare providers. A PHR is information about your health compiled and maintained by you. The difference is in how you use your PHR to improve the quality of your healthcare.

Take an active role in monitoring your health and healthcare by creating your own PHR. PHRs are an inevitable and critical step in the evolution of health information management (HIM). The book “Personal Health Record” assists new users of PHRs in getting started, addressing current PHR trends and processes.

The American Health Information Management Association explain what PHR contain, how it is used, what can you do with it and how it work.

Link: http://www.myphr.com/StartaPHR/what_is_a_phr.aspx

Credit: The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA)