PAC earlybird registration closes tomorrow : 31/07/2010 :

Early Bird Registrations for PAC10 close tomorrow so there is still time to get a special deal and take advantage of the wide range of sessions and activities available. PSA members can save $150 if they register early - non members can save $250.

One area of particular interest is the introduction of mandatory continuing professional development for pharmacists under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme which has raised many issues and a question often asked is, “How is this going to work for me?”

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IMS Health - ACP Young Pharmacist Innovation Grant : 30/07/2010 :

The Australian College of Pharmacy (ACP) announced yesterday that Jana Fulcher had been chosen as the 2010 recipient of the IMS Health - College Young Pharmacist Innovation Grant.

The grant will send a selected young pharmacist to this year's FIP Conference to be held in Lisbon from the 28th August to the 2nd September.

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Good news for Bright Young Things : 30/07/2010 :

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia has established a dedicated area on its website for Early Career Pharmacists.

The website provides an avenue for ECPs to monitor the progress of the PSA’s ECP Working Group projects, submissions and activities. It also provides a link to the ECP Facebook page.

Chair of the ECP Working Group, Justin Lee, said the projects section of the site contains the results of the recent ECP survey that was conducted earlier in the year.

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Pharmacists slow to embrace Issues Paper : 30/07/2010 :

Some two months after PSA released its Issues Paper on the Future of Pharmacy less than a third of the respondents to this week's AusPharm poll say they have read it. However, another one third of respondents say they still plan to have a look.

The results of the poll aren't too different to an identical poll we ran a month ago asking 'listers if they'd read the Guild's The Roadmap - The Strategic Direction for Community Pharmacy.

You can download the Issues Paper here and the Roadmap here. AusPharm's read them and commends them both to you.

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Future of Pharmaceutical, Device & Biological Manufacturing in Australia : 29/07/2010 :

The International Society For Pharmaceutical Engineering's Australasian Affiliate has organised a Leadership Forum which will focus on "The Future of Pharmaceutical, Medical Device and Biological Manufacturing In Australia".

This national event for industry and government representatives will be held on 17 August 2010 (12-5pm) commencing with lunch, at the Hilton Hotel, 488 George Street, Sydney. 

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How to avoid medicine interactions covered in latest MedicinesTalk : 28/07/2010 :

The latest edition of the NPS consumer resource MedicinesTalk looks at what medicine interactions are, what can happen and how to avoid problems.

"If you are taking a medicine – whether it is a prescription, over-the-counter or complementary medicine – there’s a chance you may experience a medicine interaction. This is because any of these types of medicine can interact with each other, and with some foods and drinks."

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Poll: Have you read PSA's Issues Paper on Pharmacy's Future? : 28/07/2010 :

In May 2010, the PSA published their 53-page Issues Paper on the Future of Pharmacy in Australia, based on interviews with 30 key opinion leaders across the pharmacy sector. There has been more talk on this topic with last Friday's first meeting of the "Future of Pharmacy Stakeholder Forum". John Jackson's feature article on AusPharm this week maps out the direction pharmacy is headed in other countries and shares some thoughts on what Australian pharmacists, as a collective, need to do.

It seems the time is ripe for pharmacists to decide in what direction the profession is heading. As a launch point for this, have you read the ideas expressed in the PSA's Issues Paper? Please let us know by clicking the relevant box in today's AusPharm poll.

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PHARMeFOOTY weekly wrap : 28/07/2010 :

NRL Round 20 was a tight contest with only 2 tipsters selecting the 8 winners. It was A. Wong from Lakeside Pharmacy with the best margin so takes the weekly prize. In 2nd place was Michael Bates of City Pharmacy - MLC Centre with Todd Bartlett from Health Focus in 3rd spot.

AFL Round 17 saw just the 4 tipsters select all 8 winners. Tony Falloon from Bellingen had the best margin so is this weeks prize winner, well done Tony. In 2nd place was Linh Doan with Briony Monagle of Frost's Pharmacy in 3rd spot.

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Influenza readiness - Kung Flu Fighter campaign : 28/07/2010 :

The Pharmacy Guild is pleased with the outcome of its Kung Flu Fighter campaign, which has seen community pharmacies provided with a 60-day supply of facemasks, and training opportunities in infection control and business continuity planning in the event of an influenza pandemic.

The 2009 (H1N1) influenza pandemic demonstrated how quickly supplies of face masks can become exhausted in a crisis. “As soon as a pandemic starts we know masks become harder to get and protecting pharmacy staff from infection will be critical.” Guild President, Kos Sclavos said. Large pharmacies (average 15 full time employees,over 65000 scripts per year) are eligible to receive a further 3000 face masks; these can be requested online.

Given the positive response to the training opportunities in the campaing, the Department of Health and Ageing has provided further funding to the Guild to continue workshops until the end of August 2010.

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UK Health Minister allows homeopathy to remain on NHS : 28/07/2010 :

The UK health minister, Anne Milton, has this week issued a statement allowing homoeopathic remedies and treatment to continue to be funded within the NHS.

Although she is said to have welcomed an MPs report by the Commons Science and Technology Committee finding that homoeopathic remedies are no more effective than placebo, it appears that the products and their practitioners will continue to be funded by the NHS rather than being paid for by those who choose to use them.

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PAC sessions for pharmacy assistants : 27/07/2010 :

A special part of the Pharmacy Australia Congress (PAC) this year will be devoted to pharmacy assistants with education sessions tailored specifically to their needs.

The day-long program on Saturday, 30 October, will include units from the Diploma of Management being delivered in a small group workshop for senior pharmacy assistants, pharmacy managers or those wanting to progress to a more senior level in the pharmacy.

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Future of Pharmacy Stakeholder Forum - initial steps : 27/07/2010 :

Following the release by PSA of the Issues Paper on the Future of Pharmacy in Australia, a meeting was convened last Friday, 23 July 2010 to discuss the need for a whole-of-profession vision for the future of pharmacy. This 'Future of Pharmacy Stakeholder Forum' was attended by nominees from 11 peak pharmacy organisations representing all sectors of the profession.

Participants identified a high-level process to reach agreement on a whole-of-profession vision for the future of pharmacy and recognised the need for an agreed process on how to implement this vision. They undertook to seek the commitment of their respective organisations to start the processes needed to develop a whole-of-profession vision for Australian pharmacy and agreed to meet again within two to three months.

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Journal of Pharmacy Practice & Research - a CPD resource : 27/07/2010 :

Pharmacists in all sectors will find CPD I and some CPD 2 activities in the recent issue of the quarterly Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research (JPPR), although most of these are accessible to SHPA members only. Topics covered in the current issue (dated June 2010) include:

• Pictorial asthma action plans for children – are the illustrations effective?
• Evidence, ethics and medication management for older people
• Evaluation of antifungal treatment guidelines for immunosuppressed patients
• Rapid desensitisation of an immunocompetent patient with cotrimoxazole hypersensitivity
• Improvement in pharmacist’s performance facilitated by an adapted competency-based general level framework
• Bioavailability, bioequivalence, generics and switching or substitution: science, emotion and vested interests (editorial)

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YTD PBS growth running at 5% in dollar terms : 26/07/2010 :

PBS figures for June 2010 have been released by Medicare Australia.

Script numbers were up 12% compared to June 2009 with absolute dollars also up by 13%.

Calendar year to date figures show a decline in script numbers of 0.2% and growth in dollar terms of 5.0%.

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Key dates for PAC 2010 attendees & poster submissions : 26/07/2010 :

This week marks a number of key dates for pharmacists planning to attend, or participate in, the Pharmacy Australia Congress (PAC) in Melbourne during October. Those planning to attend PAC10 have only until Thursday, 29 July, to save up to $250 on registration fees through the PSA Early Bird Price offers.

Due to the Spring Racing Carnival being held the same weekend as PAC10, some of the accommodation reservations made for PAC delegates must be released back to a number of hotels at the end of this week. To ensure delegates receive their hotel of choice it is recommended that hotel bookings be finalised by 30 July.

Another key date this week is the closing of submissions of poster abstracts for presentation at PAC10. To ensure maximum exposure of poster submissions, special poster presentation sessions have been set aside during the middle of the day so delegates can be present without it limiting their attendance at other Congress sessions and events.

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PSA walk-a-thon progress - making tracks : 26/07/2010 :

Just two weeks into its national walk-a-thon, PSA staff have walked the equivalent of the distance from the Society's National Office in Canberra to Hobart and have turned around and are heading back north.
 
The aim of the walk-a-thon is for PSA staff across the country to see how many times they can walk the distance around Australia before the Pharmacy Australia Congress from 28-31 October. A personal goal for each participant is to see how many times they can walk from their home location to Melbourne, where PAC10 is being held. Last week the staff walked a staggering 776.48km.
 
Participants and observers are being kept up to date on progress of the walk-a-thon through PSA's Facebook page.  After last week's first Facebook post about the walk-a-thon, a number of Facebook followers joined the health initiative and new participants are welcome at any time.

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National register of health practitioners now online : 26/07/2010 :

AHPRA has published online a national Register of Practitioners for each of the 10 health professions regulated by the national scheme. You can now check your registration status and that of any other registered health practitioner online, by searching with name, or profession, or new registration number, or principal place of practice.

Western Australian health practitioners are not included in the register as WA has not yet joined the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, but is expected to do so soon.

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RGH E-Bulletin: Caffeine : 26/07/2010 :

The topic of this week's RGH E‑Bulletin is Caffeine.

"Caffeine is a methylxanthine compound used medicinally to stimulate the central nervous system in combating fatigue and drowsiness. Caffeine also stimulates skeletal muscle contraction and gastric secretion. Caffeine has a medical indication for the management of neonatal apnoea, and may also have a role in sports medicine with ongoing research on its use to enhance endurance in elite athletes. Caffeine occurs naturally in the leaves, nuts and seeds of plants. Guarana derivatives, available in many forms in Australia, are produced from the guarana plant seeds (which contain 3.6-5.8% caffeine)."

Click here to read the bulletin in full. The E‑Bulletins are archived on the AusPharmList website here.

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Gollman: we're fine thanks : 23/07/2010 :

Following what it says was a "misleading publication" in the Australian media this week dispensing robot supplier Gollman has moved to reassure the market that all is well. According to Chairman of GOLLMANN International, Daniel Gollmann, the company is keen to to prevent wrong market perceptions about GOLLMANN’s future in Australia.

In a statement issued overnight he said that rapid recent business growth meant that significant additional investment was required to meet operational expansion and the local distributor had "found significant challenges in raising the required capital to meet the growth requirements".

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Demystifying the new CPD requirements : 23/07/2010 :

The Australian Pharmacy Liason Forum (APLF) has issued a fact sheet to help clarify the new CPD requirements for pharmacists as they are practising and encourage a positive approach to CPD.

Given the level of queries from pharmacists as to whether they will readily be able to meet the new requirements, APLF has set out the facts along with a mini 'case study' reflecting every-day type learning activities, to reassure pharmacists that the requirements are achievable regardless of where they live or whether they can easily attend face-to-face sessions. APLF emphasises that given the routine learning activities that pharmacists are typically involved in, most will find that the extra steps to meet PBA CPD requirements are largely about keeping a summary record.

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