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Repurposing Old Drugs for New Uses
The NIH will be working with three large pharmaceutical companies to find new uses for old drugs. The hope is that drugs that have been abandoned because they failed in their original research studies will be rescued and repurposed for new uses. Last year the NIH created the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences that ... -
Contributing to Medication Safety or Medication Shortage?
Hospital pharmacists and pharmacy directors responding to an Institute of Safe Medication Practices survey stated that strict adherence to expiration dates on manufacturer labels for injectable drugs has forced them to discard perfectly good drugs despite them being in short supply. As we all know, the FDA provides guidance on expiration dates of drugs and ... -
The 2012 Joint Commission New Tobacco Cessation Measures
An interesting “Perspective” was provided in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine regarding the Joint Commission’s new tobacco cessation measures. With so many priorities and measures to choose from, the authors question whether or not hospitals will choose to focus on tobacco cessation as one of their reported measures since they’re only required to ... -
Improving Patient and Health System Outcomes Through Advanced Pharmacy Practice: A Report to the U.S. Surgeon General 2011
This 2011 report provides rationale and compelling discussion to support health reform through pharmacists delivering expanded patient care services. Pharmacists are considerably underutilized in the U.S. healthcare delivery system based on their level of education, training, and access to the community. One way to meet the growing healthcare demands in the U.S. is to maximize ... -
Poor Health Literacy as a Health Risk
A recent study published in the British Medical Journal by researchers at the University of College London found that one-third of older people are at an increased risk of dying because they do not fully understand the directions on their medicine labels. A test was conducted to determine how well 8,000 adults over the age ... -
Cost Savings With Generics?
Recently, the GAO published a report looking at whether or not increased use of generic medications is actually saving money. The GAO conducted the analysis at the request of Senator Orrin Hatch, co-author of the Hatch-Waxman Act, which led to an increase in the availability of generic drugs. In fact, in 2010, it was found that ... -
Rx to OTC
The FDA will be holding a public forum later this month to obtain opinions on whether or not certain medications might be obtained without a prescription (ie, over-the-counter pr OTC)) versus their current availability by a prescription only. As a pharmacist, I think this is a good move and think there are certain classes of medications ... -
Are You Getting the Vaccines You Need?
The CDC’s recent MMWR reported that the number of Americans who get vaccines that they need remains low despite the fact that annually approximately 45,000 Americans die from diseases that could have been prevented by vaccines. It’s proposed that these rates are low because there’s not enough information about which vaccines are needed for adults, ... -
National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a draft national plan to develop effective treatment and prevention strategies for Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. Improving care, expanding support for caregivers and heightening public awareness are all part of the plan’s goals. To reach these objectives, proposed strategies include coming up with better ways to ... -
Alzheimer’s Disease Screening
When visiting one’s primary care physician, time is precious and often quite limited. Frequently, one only has time to discuss and be evaluated for those issues and concerns that are most pressing and screening for patients who are at risk for diseases such as dementia is not addressed. The Alzheimer’s Association is hoping to fill that ...