Tiny Adults...

I know it has not been that long since my last posting, but I found some information I wanted to share with you. As I was going through my Twitter account, I found that Dr. Jerry Fharni posted an interesting link about pediatric dosing. The article stated that children are not “tiny adults”. It basically talks about how the operational systems used in the pharmacy and the third parties, treat children as tiny adults when it comes to calculate or approve adequate drugs. Also automated dispensing gets really difficult with parenteral medications.

As a student pharmacist, I understand the risk this implies in our line of work. It is clear that assertive clinical decisions are particularly important to avoid medication errors in children. Just like the article says, there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to children and computers try to do just that. It is important to maximize time and man-hours on every practice setting, but not at the risk of our patients. There is no room for error when it comes to children!!!!

Here is the link to the article in case you want to read it:  

http://rxinformati.ca/blog/48/15/Peds-are-not-tiny-adults-how-do-you-tell-a-computer-that/

MTM takes over

A couple of days ago I was watching the morning news on two different channels and saw the great job Walgreens is doing with marketing their Medication Therapy Management services in PR. In the Island, pharmacists have a very traditional look and patients tend to sponsor greatly the independent community pharmacies. They are trying to push this initiative and make people feel excited and learn about the greatness of MTM. As I was looking for more information on the topic, I found an article on The New York Times that shows this initiative is more like a nationwide campaign (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/business/at-walgreens-pharmacists-urged-to-mix-with-public.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pharmacy&st=cse).

As a student, all I can say is that I hope all pharmacists, and the community in general, can benefit from Walgreens educational campaign. At the end it will result on improved medical outcomes and better quality of life for our patients.

Health Informatics... Trustworthy or misleading?

Hello everyone!!!

My name is Eniliz Gerena and I am a student pharmacist at Nova Southeastern University in Ponce, PR. As part of an elective course, we are required to create a blog. I admit this is my first time blogging, but I am really excited.I expect to bring interesting discussions as well as valuable information.

I recently found an online article that briefly discusses how social media are important for health informatics, but can also be a misleading source of information. In the article, they talk about patients with specific diseases and caregivers that look for information about the diseases on the Internet. Most of the information found about treatment options was categorized as erroneous or misleading. However, when they seek contact with other people with the same disease, the information exchange has been really successful.

Health informatics is not only about looking for information of diseases and treatment options. The scope of Health Informatics Technology and Social Media goes far beyond what the majority of us would have thought. Is mostly about improving the quality of life of patients by giving them the tools to make informed decisions about their treatments. Such tools can include simple information sources, networking with other patients as well as health care professionals, and telephone applications among others. For us, healthcare professionals, it is an amazing tool to expand our knowledge and be better prepared to help the patients.

My purpose with this blog is to bring to the table information that can be useful to both, the provider and the patient, to positively impact our community. I hope this is just the beginning of a wonderful journey.

The above mentioned article can be found at: http://www.healthcare-informatics.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=6AB55993D2CC4281AB5A37FDCD60A6B5