Computachem
E-Newsletter
Editor:
Neil Johnston
Regular Contributors:
Rollo Manning
Leigh Kibby
WWW (Who, What, Where) + E-Vents
In this edition we are following some of the dramatic trends in e-commerce plus developments that are liable to impact on pharmacy in the near future. For example, out of one of the remotest parts of Australia comes the story of how a large investment in indigenous health, founders totally, because of a lack of proper compliance products. Rollo Manning picks up the story and explains where pharmacy must reach out and integrate. He states:
"Pharmacists must be able to liase effectively with other health professionals and show an interest in a dispensed drug beyond the point of supply. The responsibility for achieving positive health outcomes must be for the health care team in collaboration with the client. This means taking an interest in the client from the point of dispensing a drug, through its use, to whether it had the desired result. This principle applies equally across the spectrum and extends to persons living in the remotest areas of Australia."
We discuss a strategy for transacting e-commerce for practically a nil investment and minimum time involvement, and create a potential starting point for those people poised to create an Internet extension to their business. We also look at the next wave of activity where computers and the Internet are integrating with normal family functions. This is the new reality and you must join in or miss out completely in this brave new world. The concept of "Ideavirus" is also extended, and this new Internet marketing logic is worth examining. Click on the "previous topics" link if you missed out on the first two articles. At the big end of town we see Woolworths joining the world's largest procurement exchange, and we look at a new commerce exchange currently being launched for hospitals. Health Insurance gets a mention, and how the science of genomics may, in the end, destroy the private health insurance system. And finally, we look at functional foods and the blurring of boundaries between food and drugs, also a plug for The National Rural Health Alliance and their own e-newsletter.
A CONTINUUM OF INTEREST IN CLIENT OUTCOMES NEEDED From Rollo Manning
Pharmacists have got to be able to think laterally about their role in the health system, and not simply rest on their reputation of being able to dispense medicines accurately. In a letter received from a colleague in the nursing profession the message has come through very clearly that there is scope for assisting in the delivery of medicines to clients, as well as providing the drug prescribed. In this case the "problem" is in Central Australia. The Ngaanyatjarra Health Service is the only health care provider to a population of approximately 2,500 indigenous people across eleven communities in a very remote area of the Central Desert of Western Australia. The service is administered from Alice Springs. The stark contrast between the provision of health care to these people and to an urban community helps (unfortunately) to highlight the inadequacy of the present pharmacy service delivery system. There are essentially three components missing from the prescribe/dispense model operating throughout Australia. These are:
* A lack of training in dealing with other health professionals
* Inadequate consideration of whether the client is going to take the medication
* A disinterest in the health outcome from the dispensed treatment.
The correspondent from Alice Springs writes:
"I cannot believe the difficulty that I am having in my attempts to
find a medication dosette with the durability that we need for our clients."
" I honestly thought that I would press a few buttons and there would
be the product. No way! I have approached the problem through all avenues
that I can think of and have so far come up empty handed."
Remember the clients of the service are Aborigines living in the Central
Desert. Their understanding of disease states is limited, as is their
knowledge of western medicines. However this is not very different from
the clients of a pharmacy in the "high street." The principles are the
same and the difficulties similar. The stark contrast in location merely
highlights the similarity of the problems.
"The problems we are having must be encountered by other health services,
if it is not just for the quality of the product that is available,
then it must be for the cost factors."
Surely pharmacists should be concerned if the medication ordered and
supplied is not being taken. The sometimes expensive drugs, plus all
that professional expertise, in prescribing and dispensing, is being
wasted through a lack of compliance by the indigenous end-client.
"Our needs are simple. We want a sturdy, plastic, fourteen compartment,
pocket-sized container, with the availability of an area to record current
medication, which is reasonably priced."
The problem can be partly solved by designing a more robust and functional dosette container, but it would appear that not enough agitation is available to move the roadblocks that are standing in the way. Pharmacists should be the agitators in this case otherwise it is to say we are not interested in the improvement of client compliance. Present day compliance aids, if not suitable, must be improved.
"I hear you say that such dosettes are obtainable. Yes they are but they don’t last a week under our conditions. The lids snap off, they are too big, the compartments aren’t deep enough or the plastic becomes too brittle in the heat."
Then try "blister packaging", the obvious response may
be.
"We have looked at "blister" type methods but these are unacceptable,
as we need to have the capacity to change, add to or refill dosettes
on site according to the client’s presenting status."
Pharmacists must talk to nurses, doctors and health workers,
to ascertain if present methods are working and the clients’ health
improving. The clients must be spoken to (where possible) to ascertain
any difficulties with present dose delivery systems. Governments can
boast of health expenditure, but a substantial amount of dollars are
simply lost through poor compliance aids and education. The market potential
for an improved aid is evident and all pharmacists should be concerned
enough to assist in the process of obtaining the interest of a manufacturer.
Pharmacists should be proud of their contribution to better health care
and demonstrate by example they are interested in more than just the
supply function. The need for better client outcomes is the responsibility
of the entire health care team, doctors-nurses-health workers and pharmacists.
It should not be for a professional colleague to say..
"I have run out of possibilities other than to find an entrepreneur, who has the contacts, to produce a dosette to fit our criteria and get into this lucrative arena. I would accept any assistance that any reader has to offer as there is a market and a very definite need."
For the interest of more concerned persons the following
specifications are given: -
DOSETTE REQUIREMENTS
*Sturdy outer casing
*Pocket size
*Resilient ‘hinges’ for compartment lids
*Encapsulated viewing area to enclose current medication list
*Length 130mm
*Width 60mm
*Depth 20mm (minimum)
*Compartment size 15mm (approx)
*Australian made, if possible
Any interest can be direct to the Ngaanyatjarra Health Service at e-mail address jane@nghealth.com or telephone 08 8950 1730 ends
The comments and views expressed in the above article are those of the author and no other. The author welcomes any comment and interaction that may result from this and future articles. The editor would be pleased to publish any responses.
INEXPENSIVE E-PHARMACY STRATEGY
Many community pharmacists are wondering how they should
tackle an e-commerce venture, given that they know little about the
cyberworld of e-retailing, html programming etc, and where the starting
point to all this activity should be.
If you are prepared to adopt a cautious approach, and take "baby steps"
towards achieving your ultimate goal of a well-trafficked, fully e-commerce
enabled website, then it is possible to do this at a very modest cost.
For the purpose of this exercise it is assumed that you own a computer
and that you have a modem that will connect you to the outside world.
Approach your local Internet Service Provider or one of the majors,
such as Telstra, Optus, Yahoo, AltaVista etc to establish an e-mail
account for you. The chances are that you will get one or more e-mail
addresses free of charge, particularly if you purchase Internet access
time, which is very modest in cost these days.
The next step is to target your existing customer/patient base to discover
how many of them are connected by e-mail. Those that are connected,
record in your e-mail address book, and for those that are not (but
could be interested) prepare a handbill giving details of how to become
connected. The incentive, of course, is that you are going to offer
e-mail customers a benefit from your existing goods and services on
a continuing basis. Because these customers have already purchased goods
and services from you in the past, they are more likely to participate
in an e-mail promotion.
One jewellery retailer we are aware of, sent out 150 personalised e-mail
invitations to his best customers, inviting them to a special Sunday
afternoon, where they would receive champagne and top discounts on jewellery.
All they had to do was to bring in a hard copy of the e-mail and a further
5% would be given on top of advertised discounts.
The response was overwhelming, and one of the best trading days in the
history of the business was recorded!
For this result, no brochures were printed, no envelopes written, no
postage costs were involved. Everything was done using e-mail in an
inexpensive and highly successful manner. Note that if you adapt this
strategy to your own environment and conduct one or more promotions,
you will have completed a "baby steps" exercise in e-retailing without
even having a formal Internet site.
What are the benefits?
Well, as you progress with your various Internet activities, you will
be taking with you a well-trained group of e-customers (who are your
customers), and you will be generating sales to cover your Internet
development costs. More importantly, the database of customer e-mail
addresses will serve as a conduit to advertise continuing business benefits.In
particular, it will serve as an educational medium to teach customers
how to use the Internet, access your site (when developed) and how to
bookmark your site for future use.
The next step in your Internet adventure is to develop a "Storefront
Page" which is literally a one page website. Before proceeding to this
stage, you need to enlist the assistance of your Internet Service Provider
to help you establish an "address" on the Internet. This can initially
be done on a shared basis, where you attach your username to the domain
name of your Internet Service Provider, or you can establish your own
separate domain. The latter is a more expensive choice, but you do not
need this type of address until you are committed to a major website
construction. Your storefront page can be a static page which simply
tells who you are and what you do, providing all contact details. Photographs
of the pharmacy, the proprietors and the staff can be published, along
with brief biographies. This helps to personalise the site. A link to
this site can be established in the body of all e-mail communications
sent out by you, and thus becomes an extension of your profile. Recipients
just have to click on the link, and they are transported immediately
to your "Storefront".
The cost of developing a "Storefront Page" is less than $100 and the
ISP rental will probably be bundled with your Internet access charges
i.e at no additional cost. These days there are any number of amateur
programmers who can get you to this stage very cheaply.
To this point, you are not very glossy or elaborate, but you do have
a basic and effective e-commerce activity, binding your existing customers
in this strategy. Newspaper, handbill or other media advertising can
be used to generate extra e-mail addresses, with the promise of offering
a special benefit only to e-mail customers. This way you can segment
you business into differing price channels without prejudicing your
existing "bricks and mortar" established business model. It is important
that you portray your Internet business activity as being an independent
extension of your existing business, with its own policies and price
structures.
The next step in your Internet odyssey perhaps should be to establish
your own "Home Page". This is really a linkpage that is mainly B2B (business
to business) in function, containing links to all your principal suppliers,
nursing homes, doctors and other services with which you are allied.
It can also contain links to professional and general information (and
we would be delighted if you wished to link to the Computachem Interweb
Directory site). In other words, it is the "captain's seat" of your
website, and while linked to your storefront page, it is constructed
so that your customers cannot access your internal home page (unless
you wish it). Again, this page should cost less than $100 to construct,
and arrangements should be negotiated for regular updates of new link
additions, deletions of obsolete information or variations in design.
Once you have gained your initial experience in developing basic websites
and e-mail promotion, you are ready to move on to fully e-commerce enabled
websites. Once entering this realm, you will experience much higher
development and running costs, and you need to know what to specify
to a web programmer/designer to avoid undue costs. Specifically, you
need to be able to brief a professional in such a way that a site can
be constructed with an "intuitive feel" i.e as you enter the site as
a customer, there should be no doubt that your are in a pharmacy with
high levels of service and professionalism. As in the "bricks and mortar"
world, this perception does not come overnight.
Note. Computachem Services are able to provide you with Store Front and Home Page construction Services, also full e-commerce enabled sites. Just e-mail to neilj@computachem.com.au for a quotation. These services can be extended into promotions design and marketing strategies conducted as a "Business Coaching Service".
There is no doubt that the geographical endpoint for an
e-commerce transaction will be in the most functional part of a consumer's
home.
To most people, this represents the kitchen, where food is prepared,
telephone calls received, family congregate and where the refrigerator
is constantly raided (particularly if teenaged kids are involved). And
speaking of the refrigerator, the Korean company, LG Electronics, has
just introduced a 730 litre refrigerator that can be used for Internet
surfing, and even for making videophone calls.
This is the first time that moving image technology (previously only
available with multimedia products) has been used in a home appliance
product. During the process, LG has registered 75 patents world-wide,
and has succeeded in transforming the refrigerator from a mere "whitegood",
to a functional electronic appliance dispensing communications and entertainment.
Labelled the DIOS refrigerator, it comes with a high quality LCD screen,
and its own LAN (local area network) port, which allows Internet shopping
and two-way video communication for videophone calls with family or
friends. Using the camera attached on top of the LCD screen, you can
exchange video messages, or take a photograph of your family members.
The message, or picture, can be replayed. Watching television or e-mailing
is also possible with the DIOS refrigerator.
Through a link with any local Internet company, the refrigerator can
also offer real-time price information on pharmacy and food products,
or the share portfolio. For beginning Internet users, it has a separate
graphic user interface to make it more user-friendly than standard PC
computers. In addition, the DIOS has easy-to-use touch screens, music
box, letter memo using an electronic pen, and voice messaging. It also
has a schedule management function where you can store important dates
such as anniversaries and birthdays.
The developers of the DIOS refrigerator have intuitively capitalised
on what is already a highly trafficked household communications system.
The photographs, post cards messages, homely philosophy and other paraphernalia
generally found attached to the fridge door with a fridge magnets are
now being partly replaced with electronic wizardry.
Through the LCD information window you will find everything from the
refrigerator's temperature, tips on food and nutrition, recipes, food
expiry dates and cooking methods for the stored foods. The filter within
the refrigerator is also monitored electronically and change times are
flagged automatically.
On top of all these novel features, the two door refrigerator has the
lowest noise level (23dB) and the world's lowest power consumption (53
kWh) which is about half of that of other global competitors. The purpose
of this article is not an advertisement for LG products, but to highlight
the fact that from this point on, furniture and appliances will be available
with computers, fashioned in such a way that they will be unobtrusive
and blend in with the decor. The humble PC will never be the same again,
and it is being propelled from the office or spare room, right into
the mainstream of household activity. This means that the average household
will have three or four computers dedicated to specific activities and
all connected globally via the Internet. And it will not stop there.
Already clothing is being designed to accommodate portable computers,
telephones, speakers and TV screens as fashion accessories. Fashion
parades have already been held in Australia utlising sunglasses with
a built-in TV/video screen, earrings as speakers, and a specially designed
ring which acts as a computer mouse.
Pharmacy entrepreneurs should consider forming alliances with other
retailers of this type of merchandise, to ensure that your e-commerce
site is listed in the directory containing shopping lists. Your advertorial
brochures could be included as a value-adding component of the instruction
book, with value offers to entice them into your cyberstore. Opportunities
are opening up rapidly and with the possibility of developing unique
marketing "Ideaviruses" (see following article), the winners will be
those quickest on their feet. It is in these niche areas that small
business can outsmart the larger players.
IDEAVIRUS: THE WORD OF MOUSE BEATS THE WORD OF MOUTH
In previous editions, we have introduced some of the new
marketing logic as expounded by Seth Godin, the guru for Internet marketing.
The new marketing has been encapsulated in the word "Ideavurus", which
is an excellent word to describe just how different Internet marketing
is from traditional marketing. Think back to the distant time of 1990.
How many people did you have regular telephone contact with. Maybe 10,
20 or 30 in your personal life, and maybe 100 at work?
Now take a look at your e-mail or instant messaging inbox. How many
people do you hear from each week? Today, we have dramatically increased
our friends, acquaintances and contacts plus their network extensions,
and we can connect with them faster and more frequently than ever before.
Seth Godin states, "There's an e-mail in my box from someone who is
married to someone I went to summer camp with 20 years ago, who got
my e-mail address from a friend of a friend. It's hard for me to imagine
this person contacting me if he had to walk across the village and bang
on the door of my hut, or if he had to pick up a phone and call me.
But the moment any of us connects to the Internet, we all connect with
each other. And those connections make ideas travel. Fast!"
There are two differences between word of mouth and an ideavirus:
First, word of mouth is more analogue and tends to spread more slowly.
If you like a book you may tell a friend or two. But your friends are
unlikely to tell their friends until they've read it for themselves.
Meanwhile, your book languishes at the bottom of the best-seller list.
Second, word of mouth dies off. Because the number of people is smaller,
it doesn't take many people who don't participate for each generation,
to be smaller than the one before it. It does not take much to dissipate
word-of-mouth marketing.
Compare that to "word of mouse" marketing.
With an ideavirus you can tell 100 people, or even 1,000 in the shortest
timespan. Because the numbers are larger, the message spreads more quickly
and generates reinforcement. The virus grows instead of shrinking. Early
adopters of new ideas have been few in number and quirky by nature.
With the arrival of the Internet that volume of "early adopters" has
expanded exponentially. so that it is now quite fashionable to be at
the leading edge of technology all the time.
If you are reading this article you are already there.
What this means in e-commerce terms is that the market will move rapidly
to support a new idea and conversely, will abandon an older idea. Idea
lifecycles are becoming shorter and shorter, so the profit comes from
creating and owning an ideavirus, which is nurtured for the longest
possible lifespan. If something is new, different and exciting, we all
want to know about it and be part of it. The fashion now is to be in
fashion, and ideas are the way that we keep up.
At the core of any ideaviruses are the sneezers....the people that tell
10, 20 or 100 people about some new thing, and whom people believe.
There are two types of sneezers; promiscuous sneezers and powerful sneezers.
Promiscuous sneezers are people like insurance salespersons who try
to sell their favourite ideavirus to anyone at anytime. You know exactly
what this person is about as soon as they begin their pitch, and you
know that he/she is primarily motivated by money or personal reward.
This means that you downgrade the quality of output from this source
immediately. Promiscuous sneezers are not held in high regard as opinion
leaders, but if they are promiscuous enough, they can have some effect.
Many of the businesses that are being organised around ideaviruses are
targeting promiscuous sneezers, such an example being a multi-level
marketing (MLM) business e.g Amway, Neways etc.
As the value of creating ideaviruses increases, we will see more and
more people becoming promiscuous sneezers, which means that we are paying
people well enough to corrupt them into spreading ideas for cold, hard
cash.
Compare that with the influence of powerful sneezers.
Go back to the early 1980's. The hat business is near the end of a decades-long
downward spiral to total irrelevance. Each year has brought worse news,
with one manufacturer after another, going out of business. All of a
sudden, in the midst of all this dismal news, from out of nowhere, a
hero bursts onto the scene: Harrison Ford carrying a bullwhip and wearing
a hat!
Like the Marlboro Man, Indiana Jones had an enormously positive impact
on the sales of Stetson hats. Why? Because Harrison Ford is cool, because
he has the influence to set style, and because his appearance in a movie
in which he wore a fedora, coaxed millions of men who wanted to be like
him, into buying one for themselves. The paradox of the powerful sneezer
is that as much as he/she does to sell ideas, they can't be bought.
Each time a powerful sneezer accepts a bribe in exchange for spreading
a virus, they depreciate their power. This means that each time a powerful
sneezer introduces a new idea, a risk is taken. If for whatever reason
the followers reject the virus, some measure of ability to introduce
future viruses is lost.
For this reason, powerful sneezers are predictably hard to motivate
to adopt a new ideavirus, lest they be converted from the powerful to
the promiscuous.
The future growth of the net almost guarantees that we
will see more people becoming promiscuous sneezers. At the same time,
the role of the powerful sneezer will become ever more important. The
less attention we have to spare, the more likely we are to listen to
someone who's spreading a virus without gaining anything personally
from so doing.
It is hoped that readers of this newsletter find a healthy balance of
authors struck between the powerful and the promiscuous!
WOOLWORTHS FINALLY JOINS A PROCUREMENT ALLIANCE
The world's largest buying exchange, with annual purchases
exceeding US$450 billion, has been selected by Woolworths as its alliance
partner. World Wide Retail Exchange (WWRE) is anticipated to assist
Woolworths boost product buying volumes and cut "back end" business
costs.
Woolworth's annual turnover is A$20 billion and its finance director,
Bill Wavish, claims the cost savings will be "modest". However, he was
not prepared to share the estimated savings forecast with the public.
Similar alliances have shown a 10-40% reduction in purchasing costs
and other overheads. Stage one of the exchange will be launched in September,
with members running their systems on disparate IT platforms. However,
the exchange will take a "few years" to become fully operational.
Other members of the WWRE include vertical players such as Albertson's
(US), Auchan (France), Best Buy (US), Casino (France), Delhaize (Belgium),
CVS (US), GAP (US), J.C. Penney (US), Jusco (Japan), Kmart (US), Kingfisher
(UK), Marks & Spencer (UK), Royal Ahold (Netherlands), Safeway (US),
Target (US), Tesco (UK) and Walgreens (US).
Woolworth's membership in this new alliance gives it a global identity
and the ability to share business strategy information with American
and European counterparts. The advantage gained through the alliance
should transform into a company able to withstand global intrusions
into Australia, while simultaneously create wealth for its shareholders.
NEW HOSPITAL BUSINESS EXCHANGE LAUNCHED
After a year of testing, a $2 million business exchange
went live this month, which is designed to create a paperless supply
chain management system for regional hospitals.
Developed by Pacific Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider, the
vertical trading hub is now called Pacific Health Exchange.
Approximately 40 client hospitals have signed up, including South Western
Sydney Hospital, Central Sydney, Ballarat Area Health, Epworth Private
Hospital (Victoria) and the Hunter Area Health Service (NSW) . Suppliers
such as Baxter Healthcare, 3M and Ansell have also signed up.
The exchange has been designed to connect health trading partners regardless
of the size and complexity of their existing IT systems, and is based
on open industry document standards to ensure an industry-wide compatability.
It will allow hospitals to integrate and automate the ordering, distribution,
payment and reconciliation processes between hospitals and their suppliers
online. It is estimated that turnover time for purchase orders made
via the exchange will be cut by 50%, and will process 10,000 transactions
totalling around $10 million in orders, in the first month of trading.
Pacific Commerce, the IT partner implementing the back end integration
for the exchange, has set a target of capturing 25% of the local healthcare
market, which is estimated at $40 billion annually. Plans are in place
to take the hub nationally over the next two years, and then to New
Zealand plus other ventures in the Asia-Pacific region.
The ANZ Bank has a 34% stake in Pacific Commerce and will partner with
the company to provide a full suite of online financial services through
a financial trading exchange.
Australia's push to have more people privately insured
may prove to be a wrong strategy, according to a recent industry conference
held in Boston this month.
The subject presented at this conference was "Will Genomics kill the
Insurance Industry?", and the consensus reached was that it is a credible
scenario.
Senior executives from several of the world's leading genomic companies,
agreed that genomics, with its promise of being able to show who will
be predisposed to what disease, would eventually give rise to universal
healthcare in the US. This would be inevitable if the defects detected
in human genomes create an uninsurable risk.
The public outcry to this problem would probably see the demise of all
private health insurers and a replacement with a government universal
health scheme.
The good news about genomics is that deadly diseases could be caught
in their early stages and thus could be treated, even cured. There is
also the promise of a new generation of drugs that will correct entirely
or modify genetic flaws. The bad news is that everyone will learn that
they are a walking time bomb in some shape or form.
With private insurance, the definition of "pre-existing illness" will
turn actuarial scales upside down. The potential for class action law
suits against insurers, ensures that closure on most schemes will be
terminal.
Discussion also centred on the impact of health insurance demise on
drug makers.
The pharmaceutical and biotech industries have been adamant that if
universal healthcare became a reality, with resultant price controls
on drugs, research budgets would be bankrupted and would need to be
replaced with government grants.
There is panic in the ranks!
So with an uninsurable population, what would our health options be?
Well, obviously in the US, it would be extremely unpalatable with the
free market for drugs in that country coming under tight rein. But in
Australia, we already have a universal health scheme considered to be
one of the best in the world.
Optimistically, with the ability to transplant artificial chromosomes
now a reality, we may not ultimately need health insurance or a universal
health scheme.
So, do we need private health insurance right now?
FUNCTIONAL FOOD STARTING TO BOOM
The global functional food industry is growing at an astounding
rate, with markets being measured at $US 250 billion in America, $US
4 billion in Japan, and $US 250 billion in Europe.
These figures are even more impressive when it is known that the market
did not take off in western economies until the early 1990's.
Australia exports most of its organic foods to these markets and local
growers are experiencing escalating sales at premium prices.
The UK supermarket chain Iceland, has recently made a complete switch
to organic foods and was the first British retailer to ban genetically
modified ingredients from its own brands. More impressively, this single
retail chain has contracted to buy an estimated 40% of the world's organic
vegetable crop, just to keep up with shopper demand.
In the US the definition of a functional food loosely includes dietary
supplements and natural foods. In Japan, foods for a specified health
use have to be registered (FOSHU foods) and the list exceeds over 100
products, one third of which are soft drinks.
Without any legal definition of what constitutes a functional or health
giving food, there are many grey areas, giving rise to unsubstantiated
health benefit claims.
More sinister is the attempt by some manufacturers to manipulate food
production and give a decidedly "unhealthy" benefit. A Florida court
recently ruled that a Fox TV reporter was illegally fired from her position
of employment after refusing to run a false report about genetically
engineered bovine growth hormone (BGH), a controversial substance used
to increase milk production. In the original version of the report,
the journalist had highlighted the potential links to breast cancer
plus other human and animal health effects. It was alleged that testimony
given during the trial showed how Monsanto, the company that developed
BGH, warned Fox of "dire consequences" if the station went ahead and
aired the critical report.
Given that there are downsides to the functional foods market, there
are predictions that "Grey Food" is set to become the next major food
category in Australia. There are a number of Australian studies to show
that our seniors are under-nutritionalised, and have been developing
serious health problems as a result. There is a move to develop foods
which are easily digested, high in fibre and fortified with a wide range
of vitamins and minerals.
Australia has the second highest life expectancy after Japan, and it
is believed that with proper nutrition, life expectancy will move upwards
to the 100 years mark over this century. Moves to support the growth
of functional foods are being encouraged by governments (this has already
started), in an attempt to develop a preventive approach to health and
wellbeing, and limit the escalation of the National Health budget.
One positive decision was the recent one to ensure all foods in Australia
and New Zealand are labelled clearly with their genetically modified
components, no matter how minute.
It is my belief that pharmacists should look to develop expertise in
the area of functional foods, because the lines are rapidly blurring
between foods and drugs. Assisting elderly patients/customers in wise
food choices from a marketing point of view, means an expanding market,
as Australia increases the number of "greys" in its population each
year.
The older a person lives, the more medically intensive they become.
Strategies have to be considered to keep people working longer, as the
number of taxable younger people is diminishing as a percentage of total
population. The trick is to improve lifestyle at the same rate as lifespan.
The recent Caltex decision to re-employ some of its retired managers
to work in a call centre, has been highly profitable for Caltex, as
this combined wealth of experience is channelled into positive customer
contact, creating increased sales and profits. And the participants
really enjoy their work! Pharmacists should consider any preconceived
prejudices in functional food area, and make a rational choice.
A lesser dependency on National Health and a variation in pharmacy models
is, after all, a national goal.
First in with the best "ideavirus" will scoop the pool.
THE NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH ALLIANCE
Want to subscribe to another interesting newsletter?
The National Rural Health Alliance has a publication dedicated to news
and reviews of all aspects of rural health. You can subscribe on the
website at http://www.ruralhealth.org.au
or you can contact the independent editor, Jim Groves, at grovesc@winshop.com.au
For more information on previous topics click here
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