Welcome to the third edition of i2P E-Magazine.
In this edition we draw your attention to the E-Pharma Conference coming up on the 29th May next.

There is a PDF download of the program and registration form, so make use of this facility. If you do not have an Acrobat reader installed on your desktopm we have provided a link for you to get one free.
With the Pharmacy Guild officially rolling out its IT program, and president, John Bronger, one of the speakers at the E-Pharma conference, this is one event you cannot afford to pass up.

This month we again visit the New Zealand experience of a government hijacking ownership of community pharmacies, offering spurious reasons for going down that track, claiming a "mandate" for the process.
We look at the "Working Group" behind the Wilkinson Review into Australian Pharmacy and note what their official sentiment is in regard to pharmacy ownership issues here in Australia.
You have every right to feel uneasy, and lobbying efforts should be planned and be in place before the next election, which could fall in the same year that major pharmacy issues fall due for review.

Ken Stafford is back talking about effective communications, Roy Stevenson delivers part two of his homily for John, the young pharmacist who wants to gain experience (through being a locum) to go into his own business. Roy offers some good advice.

Rollo Manning has just returned from a conference and writes about the various agencies involved in the quality use of medicines. He makes some good comment and backs it up with some rather disturbing photgraphs of QUM gone wrong.

Peter Sayers and James Ellerson are back with some pharmacy IT issues, while our younger writers, Simon Rudderham and Andrew Snow ponder on some of the frailties they are experiencing within their chosen profession.

John Aldous talks about an interesting clinical concept being introduced within the hospital in which he is working, and it may well have application for consultant pharmacists working in the community.

Heather Pym has also just returned from a conference and Terry Irvine is back and is revisiting the concept of automated dispensing. Have a good look at Ayron Teed's article - I regard this as one of the best we have published.

We are well pleased with the number of "hits" we are experiencing on our site, and we thank all readers for taking the interest.
We are currently going through another major upgrade of our site, and in the coming months will introduce you to some e-commerce enhancements you may wish to incorporate in your own strategy.
Now that official pharmacy has committed itself, we can all look forward to an interesting transformation to pharmacy life, as we all learn to work a little smarter.
Going Internet will offer the opportunity to outsource a lot of your workload, which may provide a good alternative to employing extra staff plus investing in their training. It will also offer a range of opportunities to form alliances in some unusual ventures, and we at i2P hope to be able to keep you abreast of some of the more important opportunities.
It is important to know that initially, IT ventures can be costly and time consuming.
Buying "off the shelf" solutions provides a good first step before you venture independently.

Neil Johnston
April 2002

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