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Functional Foods, Nutraceuticals or Dietary Supplements?
By Neil Johnston

Aging populations, fast foods and sedentary lifestyles are combining to create an explosion in health problems, that is reflecting in escalating costs of government funded health systems.
For Australians, this means higher taxes to fund the National Health Scheme.
For Australian pharmacists, it means ever increasing pressure on Pharmaceutical Benefits costs.
These problems are not confined to Australia, and are reflected with a varying intensity on a global basis.

Who Gets Paid for What?
By Rollo Manning

"Time is money is often said" - but how many of us actually think about how productive we are to ourselves or our employers in terms of dollar return for effort put in.
Pharmacists should examine their day and decide what has to change if they are to make a profit in the new age of "value add"

Multidisciplinary Behaviour
By Simon Rudderham

Pharmacy is in a unique position, as both a provider of information and a collector of funds for prescribed goods. Despite always seeming to rate fairly highly on the list of most trusted professions, maintaining this trust can be difficult when trying to recommend to an elderly patient that there may be something a bit better (even though it may be a little more expensive) for their cough than senega and ammonia.

Make The Time To Develop One Of Our Greatest Assets
By Karalyn Huxhagen

For those of you who missed the seventh Annual Pharmacy Australia Congress in October 2001 you missed a great conference. The quality of the speakers for PAC itself were exceptional, and the clinical presentations by the Pharmacists from America for the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy made us hungry for more. You really should try to attend PAC in 2002 in Hobart as this year's program promises to be even better.

The Wheel Turns Full Circle
By Mark Coleman

A fairy story or a nightmare.
You be the judge.
With the massive changes in the health care sector that are in progress, and unlikely to abate for quite a few years, one has to stand back and wonder if the tremendous costs associated with such projects like the Better Medication Management System (BMMS) really will provide sufficient offset benefit in the long term.
With the additional concentration of centralised power and control of a pharmacist's workflow (with the potential to add to business overhead), will pharmacists become the nightwatchmen illustrated in the story that follows?

The Challenge Of Timely Response
By Heather Pym

The release in JAMA of the US Women's Health Initiative study and implications for long term use of combined Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) aroused a fierce media barrage and a consequent public reaction that put my GP colleagues in the Division in the front line.
A consultant pharmacist working the Division of General Practice - me - was delighted to get to work ascertaining the facts and disseminating to GPs the information they needed to placate their patients and discuss rationally what the study findings now mean for the many women taking HRT.

Postcards from the Coalface
By Terry Irvine

Editor's Note: Terry Irvine continues with his "Postcards" column from the "coalface" of a very busy rural pharmacy.
His stories illustrate how frustrating the daily life of a pharmacist can be, and how necessary the function of pharmacy is in the complexity of providing safe patient care in an everyday setting.
We all have our own stories and experiences in a similar vein.
Pharmacists often do not think about their contributions to patient care, but if they reflected more on what they provide, and placed a value on it, they might just be able to move away from the myriad of free services already on offer.
One suggestion is made under the heading of Therapeutic Group Premiums.

Protect and Promote Your Compounding
By Peter Sayers

It seems these days that nothing is safe from the predatory clutches of big business in their almost paranoid haste to swamp up every vestige of business activity around them, no matter how small or inconsequential.
Such an example, the successful result of big business lobbying of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is the legal push, to tightly control and regulate the activities and products of compounding pharmacists.

Retail Roundup
By Neil Johnston

I guess it had to eventually happen.
The checkout "chics" are about to disappear.
And what could possibly take their place?
Well, National Cash Register (NCR) has just announced its "checkout solution" in the form of FastLane.
This is a sophisticated piece of equipment which allows customers to unload, scan, bag and purchase their products.
It provides quite an interesting self-checkout arrangement that can support any size order, from one item to a full shopping cart.

A Model Rural Division of General Practice
By Catherine Mackay for Ayron Teed

Hi Neil..... I'm at the West Vic Division of General Practice - introducing Catherine Mackay and Jane Measday who have both been so valuable in promoting pharmacy activities in our region. Neither are pharmacists !!!!!!!!
Pharmacists can't do any of this sort of work - it's that bloody four-wall syndrome !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway,Catherine's taking over now for this issue..........
Regards, Ayron

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