Well, there you go, this site is now about a year old. Yes, I’m not going to look up exactly when it went ‘live’ but knowing the month is good enough. In celebration Bayer have decorated their building as per the picture. Nah, not really…
I came across this article which mentions something we’ve read in similar studies and articles that state that pharmacists are the top, or in the top three usually, most trusted professions. I wonder if we still feel this to be the case for a couple reasons.
In a recent post I mention the move toward discount pharmacies. While this may have some positives for the public on their bottom line when visiting the pharmacy, there are somedraw backs I will discuss later, but for now I want to focus on the issue of trust. Going back a few years, I don’t really think you need to go back to far, lets say, maybe four or five years ago, the public did not have a clear concept on drug pricing. The pharmacy would charge what they charge and that was that. Now, for those in the pharmacy profession, I think we can agree previously we were charging reasonable prices and this helped support what is effectively a small business for the owner and all the costs involved, as well as having many staff on hand so when a customer walked in wait was minimal. Secondly, there is an onus of responsibility on the pharmacist who has also dedicated much time and expense in becoming qualified, so in line with similar professions, monetary reimbursement is expected. In general, it was a fair system. (more…)
Here’s an interesting article from the Canadian Pharmacist’s Journal regarding establishing a vaccine practice on site. While this type of practice is not advancing in Australia, there are places such as Canada which are moving ahead.
The article mentions the advantages to the patient/customer as well as the pharmacist for this practice. Firstly it acts as a point of call for education and information particularly about travel vaccines. It is a convenient place and (probably) easy to schedule the vaccination. This is of particular help if booking at the doctor’s is not able to be time with a departure date, and eases the burden on the G.P. office to take in patients for vaccinations which takes away time from those patients that have more pressing investigations needed. (more…)
To make sure I completely throw myself at every possible fad, I have also setup a Twitter account, for those that find communicating through facebook too old fashioned and labour intensive. If you’re with Telstra, you can even voice twitter, because, yeah, we managed to phase out writing, so lets do the same with typing and texting. Ah. (more…)
Yes, everyone and everything needs to be on Facebook. I remember like yesterday, and it was only a little over two years ago that over the table at a pharmacy social event a colleague was asking me if I was on Facebook.
“What?” I replied (more…)
For those in Australia, we are familiar with large chain pharmacy companies such as National Pharmacies, Chemmart, Chemplus, Amcal and so on. Now we have (relatively) newer ones such as Chemist Warehouse, United Discount Chemists, and Priceline. There seems to be a heading in a discount marketed direction, however the originals are still keeping their same banners and general ‘non-discount’ image. Do you feel this is hurting or helping the industry by marketing pharmacies as drug warehouses. These pharmacies are still providing the same counselling and professional services, but on observer may say the outfit of the store may be diminishing the professional reputation of pharmacies. (more…)
I was tempted to replace the ‘F’ in filmmaker with ‘Ph’ for geeky effect but felt ‘Philmmaker’ might be confusing.
Trailer I came across for a film directed by a pharmacist, check it out. (more…)
Here’s your Oxycontin (insert mischievous laugh here) (more…)
Edward and Bella – Your Local Pharmacists?
With all this excitement over Twilight New Moon, or the Twilight Saga, or whatever, maybe there will be a renewed interest in pasty white folks. They’re certainly going crazy over Edward and Bella and the other bone white co-stars. For those of us with already light skin that would take a week in the bahamas to give a decent tan, hanging around 9am-9pm in the one spot completely out of the reach of the sun’s rays pretty much guarantees we will look as hot as those stars. Pale is the new tan. I can cancel my appointment to the tanning spa.
This is a little irrelevant, but I was seated at a restaurant, one of those informal venues with bold art work sprayed here and there and a couple of large screens pumping through music videos from the 80s to today. (more…)
Without taking it too personally, this is both sharp, slightly funny take on the public’s view of pharmacy, but sadly, as we know from our customers, an accurate impression of what some view our profession to be.
All you US pharmacists are probably well aware of Jim Plagakis and his insightful website. If not you should be. I won’t say more because you are better off going straight there and finding out for yourself.
Jim was the inspiration for starting this blog section of this site to provide an Australian perspective on the profession, when he posted a reply of mine which can be found here. Essentially it is a brief run down on the Australian pharmacy system, so if you’re from Australia skip that and go straight to Jim’s blog. For those who want to know a little more about how (in general) the Australian system may compare to their own, have a quick read, and then be sure to take a look at Jim’s blog, definitely worth going back and looking at the older posts as well.
The material for this comment comes from a question asked through our ‘Ask a Question’ portal. Of course no specific detail will given as all medication question are confidential, but these red-flagged questions will hopefully be educational to our non medical readers, and those pharmacy students/new pharmas who need to remember to check any drug combined with pregnancy (or lactation for that matter) and not assume its probably okay because its not one of those extreme Catagory X drugs you get scared with at university.
A question posed was if a certain blood pressure medication is okay to take while pregnant. This person already was pregnant and there was a reasonable amount of time before her next doctor’s appointment and hence when this issue would have been discussed. (more…)
A colleague recently mentioned he had heard Vitamin D can be used against H1N1 (Swine Flu). I decided to look into this should a flurry of queries come in from customers once this leaks to a radio program or current affairs program (where apparently there are right 100% of the time, according to many customers).
This link includes some info but I can’t comment on the reliability of the source. The NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine) has a post but I haven’t got access at the moment. (more…)
