Community Practice

Pharmacists need to be better trained to deal with the controlled-substance abuse that has skyrocketed over the past decade, according to a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

Pharmacists play a critical role in ensuring patient safety. They detect and report medication errors, counsel patients, and educate other healthcare personnel. But two common communication problems?lack of a shared definition of error and of agreement as to the role and scope of the pharmacist's work?coupled with inadequate access to resources for managing the pharmacy workload prevent R.Ph.s from fulfilling their key role.

Curing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is a formidable task, but clinicians and researchers are rapidly assembling the tools to do it. Over the past decade, our understanding of the disease process has progressed to the molecular level?allowing the development of new therapeutic options with the potential to precisely target therapy to the lymphomas?paving the way for longer remissions; fewer side effects; and, for increasingly more patients, cures. Research is progressing at a dizzying pace?at least 200 U.S. clinical trials are enrolling NHL patients.

A 30-year-old African-American, B.H., is scheduled for hernia repair surgery at your hospital. In his admitting medical history, he acknowledges to your student that he is a heavy drinker and uses marijuana recreationally. Your student is suspicious that his recreational drug use may extend beyond marijuana. Will you recommend any modifications to your standard premedication/ anesthesia/postsurgery protocol?

In the world of medical reimbursement, having a "CPT code" for a type of professional effort or procedure is much like having its existence recognized. Medication therapy management (MTM) services by pharmacists crossed that threshold on July 1, when the American Medical Association's official list of procedures added three codes for MTM?initial service, subsequent service, and additional time, each in 15-minute blocks?in its chapter on cognitive services.

A key drug safety researcher says the electronic systems that pharmacists use to talk to one another may be a powerful tool for postmarket safety surveillance. The organizations he works with are doing pilot studies to explore that possibility.

The 2005 Summer National Senior Games, held recently in Pittsburgh and sponsored by Mylan, GlaxoSmithKline, and others, saw numerous pharmacists compete in athletic events such as softball, basketball, cycling, golf, and volleyball.

The old saying that the "devil is in the details" holds true for Minnesota's Blue Cross and Blue Shield contract letting retail pharmacies fill 90-day scripts, according to pharmacists who have responded to the offer with, "Get thee behind me, Satan."

Voicing concerns that the conscientious objections of some pharmacists are harming patients, the American Medical Association wants physicians to be able to dispense medications when pharmacists refuse to do so.

A dizzying array of new products was highlighted at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Marketplace 2005 conference, held in New Orleans last month. At this largest front-end trade show in the industry, the buzzword was natural, with the majority of new products containing natural ingredients to satisfy customer demand for safer solutions to healthcare problems. Here's a look at the new entries in personal care, dietary supplementation, and home health care.

The No. 1 thing on pharmacy customers' minds these days isn't the side effects of their medication or how to take their drugs properly. According to a new survey, it's how much their prescriptions cost, and why prices keep going up. And according to the same survey, those are the very questions pharmacists are the least comfortable answering. These results were released at an AARP forum, held recently in Washington, D.C.

An electronic tool is being developed to help pharmacists assist seniors on Medicaid who may be confused about having to choose a Medicare prescription drug plan by year's end.

At the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), some 25,000 cancer specialists from around the world came to Orlando, Fla., to consider the latest advances in cancer care, treatment, and prevention. Novel targeted therapies for major cancers abounded, as did improvements in quality of life for patients suffering adverse effects from conventional therapy. Here are some highlights

Neuropathic pain (NP) is a condition that is more common than has generally been recognized. Patients often report a pain in their extremities akin to being on pins and needles. It is estimated that in the United States, more than three million people have diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and as many as one million have postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). Luckily, newer drugs such as duloxetine (Cymbalta, Eli Lilly) and gabapentin (Neurontin, Pfizer) have proven efficacious for providing relief.

Photo-op for new camcorder

Terminally ill with cancer, David Pruiett decided to end his life under Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. He went through the legal process, got the lethal prescription in late January, swallowed the liquid laced with powder from 100 barbiturate pills, and fell asleep. Three days later, he woke up and asked his wife why he wasn't dead.

Tour boosts community pharmacists

It sounds like one of those tedious Robert's Rules of Order procedural niceties only a parliamentarian could love, but a change in the bylaws of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy will eventually pay dividends for pharmacists seeking to transfer their licenses.

About 400 independent pharmacists hit Washington recently to ask Congress for legislation to require pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate with them on a number of issues.

About 400 independent pharmacists hit Washington recently to ask Congress for legislation to require pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate with them on a number of issues.

Prescription drugs accounted for 92% of all sales rung up by independent pharmacies last year, according to preliminary data from the 2005 NCPA-Pfizer Digest. The report is an annual snapshot of the sector's operational landscape.

Pharmacists who wonder whether they've still got what it takes can now go on-line to get a confidential evaluation of their professional savvy using a tool developed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.

The American Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores have developed a model to help community pharmacists scratching their heads over how to implement the profession's concept du jour—medication therapy management (MTM).

A Chicago pharmacist's refusal to dispense the morning-after pill and the Wisconsin pharmacy board's discipline of a pharmacist who refused to transfer a script for birth control pills have triggered a flurry of media attention on pharmacy.

A 40-year-old HIV-positive man, V.L., is hospitalized with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). His current viral RNA load > 50,000 copies/ ml, CD4 = 40 cells/mcl.