Role of Depression in Diabetes and Osteoporosis

I've usually thought about osteoporosis being a fairly independent thing-you have low calcium intake or other risk factors (age, gender, ethnicity, family history) and you have a higher chance of having lower bone mass. Seems straightforward.

Well, maybe not. A recent study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine recently found that premenopausal women who are depressed have an elevated risk of developing osteoporosis-so much so that the initial findings indicate that clinicians should consider even mild depressive disorder to be a risk factor on par with smoking, low exercise, and low calcium intake. As usual, BBC.com has a good article on the topic.

In addition, a Canadian study looking at SSRI use in post-menopausal women doubled the risk of fracture. This article was also published in the Archives of Internal Medicine back in January. There is also a BBC article on it as well.

Osteoporosis isn't the only disease that is affected by depression-diabetes is as well. A study out of the University of Pennsylvania found that being more aggressive with depression treatment in patients with both depression and diabetes prolonged their lives. It's interesting to not that the patients in the study that died weren't dying of suicide-most were related to cardiovascular death. I was only able to find the abstract out of Diabetes Care on this one, and here's the blog article where I first saw the topic.

Chantix follow-up

I mentioned this last week, but I saw a follow-up story and thought I'd drop it on the blog as well. A family in Britain is blaming Chantix (called Champix in Britain) for the suicide of Omer Jama. A Pfizer representative states that no studies have linked suicidal thoughts to the use of Chantix, and that nicotine withdrawal can exacerbate underlying psychiatric problems.

Who's at fault?

Dennis Quaid is an actor, a pretty good one actually. He and his wife also have newborn twins. While in the hospital, the hospital staff used heparin to flush out the babies' catheters. Nothing unusual there. But what was unusual was the strength of heparin used: 10,000 units/ml instead of 10 units/ml. Yeah, that's not good. Luckily, it appears they were given protamine soon after to reverse the heparin effects, and things came out all right. Here's an article with more info.

However, the story doesn't end there. The Quaid's are suing, but they are not suing the hospital (which took full liability) they are suing the company that supplied the heparin-Baxter. Here's a good video from CNN. Now at first blush, this seems like the typical American use of the legal system: I'm going to SUE you!!! But here's what I think is pretty cool: They are only suing for $50,000. Obviously, they're not doing it for the money-they merely want Baxter to change the problematic packaging (three newborns died in Indianapolis last year with the same mixup) and admit their mistake. I think this is very admirable, and shows the power that publicity has to do good. Maybe I will have to check out The Alamo after all....

Interesting NY Times Essay

Tom Welch passed this one on to me-I thought it was a pretty interesting essay. We focus a lot of attention on DTC advertising, but the marketing campaigns at PHRMA works through many different avenues. We are used to seeing drug reps at pharmacy meetings and events, but what happens if it's just a doctor giving a talk? This lengthy essay from the NY Times gives one doctor's experience giving drug talks. Here's a brief interview with Dr. Carlat in response to his article, as well as his blog that undermines a lot of what he did as a drug company representative.

Chantix concerns

More FDA stuff...The FDA issued an early communication about the possibility of some possible concerns of erratic behavior and suicidal ideation that is possible with Chantix. Here's some more info on the Pharmalot newsfeed as well that goes into further detail.

Zetia not as good as their marketing plan?

So, Zetia has some pretty nifty commercials and they are awfully scientific looking. But, apparently their actual approach to good science isn't quite up to snuff. Thanks to Dominic for sending the following links-

Here's a New York Times article on the issue questioning their delay in releasing information and changing primary endpoints. For a funny analysis of the topic, check out the Drugmonkey's blog here. **Caution-the Drugmonkey uses language not commonly used in a pharmacy (at least hopefully not used) so those with sensitive eyes, beware.

FDA Conference on Behind-the-counter status

On November 14th, the FDA heard comments from the general public-they are listed here. It's 88 pages long, just to warn you, but if you search for the name "Michael Mone" he spoke on behalf of APhA. He also has some Minnesota ties as well, so that's pretty nifty. Here is a more accessible format of the APhA statement.

I have not yet seen any replies from the FDA or any kind of summary. They are traditionally pretty slow moving, so I wouldn't expect any kind of movement for a while. However, on a slightly related note, Zyrtec is now available over the counter, and Zyrtec-D is behind the counter. As more medications like this are released, with both OTC and BTC status, the third class of drugs is essentially being created. But, will pharmacists take the opportunity to become more involved with their patient's health care when they aren't required to?

MRSA Follow-up

Ahhh, back to our favorite topic-MRSA. As a follow up to the previous post-Andy Behm from Express-Scripts sent a few drugs that are either approved or in the pipeline, as well as a clarification of what "approvable" means in the process.

The most recent drug is Doribax (doripenem) that was approved a few weeks ago for IV use. It falls in the carbapenem class (Remmel is going to get to this soon, so I know nothing on the class as of right now-sorry) but it can be used for complicated intra-abdominal infections and complicated UTI's-so it's effective agains both gram positive and gram negative infections. For further details on what doripenem treats-head here.

The following three drugs that he mentioned are in the "approvable" classification according to the FDA. Andy said that this means that the drug is on the right track towards becoming approvable, and there are a few more things that need to get worked out, like further testing or come up with appropriate labeling. For an interesting discussion on "approvable" letters and how companies respond (and how investors look at the drug development process) head here.

The first drug that falls in this class is the aforementiong televancin-check this one out below. Another drug that is "approvable" is Pfizer's Zeven (dalbavancin). Besides having a sweet brand name-great marketing, Pfizer-dalbavancin works by inhibiting peptidoglycan synthesis and blocking cell wall formation by binding the D-alanyl-D-alanine that is found on precursors of peptidoglycan. For a longer summary of the drug-head here. Also, Pfizer bought the rights to dalbavancin from Vicuron, who first submitted the New Drug Application in 2004.

The third and final drug passed on by Dr. Behm is a drug from Arpida called iclaprim. It works by inhibiting dihydrofolate reductase, and has effectiveness against many different bugs. However, it seems to have met with a critical crowd as evidenced by this article and this one.

As a final note, oh loyal blog-watchers, I wanted to throw this final thought out: When I was looking through these articles, I realized many of the articles didn't discuss the effect and benefit that having more medicines that are effective against resistant strains available and the improvement in treatment this would bring, but on the economic boom that resistant bacteria bring to big PhRMA and their stockholders. As the market share of the treatment of nosocomial infections grows from $10 billion last year to a predicted $40 billion by 2010, it seems that like sharks to blood, drug companies are laboring to bring their drug to market faster and claim a piece of that pie. To see how many companies are looking at this possibility and drooling-look here.

The Pharmacist's true Halloween Terror: Medication Errors

I think we all remember the 20/20 piece from last spring-if not here's the video for a reminder. For further comments-here's the ABC blog with many comments on either side-so I won't belabor the topic here....too much ;-)

A positive aspect of this whole topic, however difficult it may be to discuss, is that is acts like a "Call to Action" in the public and in the media (again with the media discussion, Jared...seriously-we get it.) Towards this end, CNN now has an "Empowered Patient" series that encourages patients to be more involved in their health care. This week, the main article deals with minimizing pharmacy errors and ways to talk to your pharmacist and what you can do to minimize pharmacy errors.

I also found a newsletter that you can receive from the Institute of Safe Medication Practices that looks pretty interesting. The ISMP is an entire area that we don't hear anything about-and with the public concern of medication errors, I think we should make this more of an issue and be more proactive about it, rather than reactive.

The more we look at medication distribution and realize that the value that pharmacists add to the health care system is not in distribution but our cognitive services, the further I believe we can push the profession and practice the way we feel it should be practiced. Reducing medication errors are a HUGE area where we can make a difference, but we also need to let the public know that pharmacy is SOOO much more.

What happens if MRSA gets confused with MPSA?

....oh, the implications. So....I do indeed make bad jokes. Whatever.

Usually, conversations with friends and family that turn to pharmacy will either be them a) showing me a rash b) complaining about how much their co-pay is and not realizing how much is actually being paid for (that's another blog...) or c) questions about what I want to do when I graduate, to which I usually espouse the multitude of opportunities available in pharmacy. Now, however, the new questions have revolved around MRSA-methicilling resistant staph aureus.

The original questions began after the CNN article ran a couple of weeks ago, in response to the JAMA article and also the death of a student who contracted the infection at school (and other deaths that are now coming to light.) Though MRSA has been an issue and of concern in hospitals for years, it is great to see this get people's attention and have more people realize the impact of antibiotic resistance and its implications. Still, it's pretty scary to think when the "Vancomycin resistant Staph Aureous" super bug comes along, or linezolid resistant, etc. There is at least one drug-Televancin that recently received an "approvable letter" from the FDA that is in the pipeline and not too far from approval-I'm not sure of others.

In addition, there is always the prevention route to slowing down the spread of MRSA. While some hospitals will likely do a deep clean to rid the hospital of the bug-this BBC article suggests that merely keeping up on general cleaning, even with just soap and water, cleans up the bug. Of course, proper and frequent hand washing is the biggest step in preventing the spread of this "superbug."

Also, last weekend over MRM, there was a very interesting proposed resolution that requested cleaning our white coats. I was at first like much of the rest of the contingent at the meeting, and thought the resolution was a bit hammy-but the explanation of the reasoning was not far at all from being off the mark. In Britain, there is a possibility that there may be a ban on white coats, and many hospitals, at the suggestion of the British Medical Association, have already banned ties across the pond. I think this was a great idea and a very proactive approach to helping resolve the MRSA problem, and a huge opportunity for student pharmacists in the US to take an opportunity to help public health and stop the spread of infectious disease (and don't get me started on the internet resolution....)

Pharmacist Indicted for Med Error

Mistakes. We all make them. But, to what extent should we as pharmacists be held accountable? In Ohio, a pharmacist is being indicted for a med error that led to the death of a 2 year-old girl-here's the link. The discussion on the matter and impact on the profession is also very interesting and the ethics surrounding it are intriguing. There is also mention of mandated pharmacy technician training as well. Here's an article that goes a bit more in depth on the circumstances of the error and subsequent death, as well as more information on Emily's Law.

Eric Cropp, the pharmacist who performed the final double check on the chemo IV that ultimately killed Emily Jerry, has had his license revoked. Here's the testimony from the Jerry family. It's pretty intense, just to warn you. Here are the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy Minutes of that session-the testimony and conclusion are on pages 21-25.

A lot to think about witht his issue-we could probably hold an entire meeting discussing this as we did with the 20/20 piece on med errors last year. I'll try and keep everyone updated on this one.

Taxol not as effective as first thought

This article from the Star Trib was forwarded on to me, and I thought it was very timely for what third years have been studying. Taxol or paclitaxel is used for women with breast cancer, but it appears to be more effective in women who are HER-2 positive. I will write more later-here's the New England Journal of Medicine article as well.

Topiramate for treatment of alcoholism?

Topiramate/Topamax is commonly used for epilepsy and for migraines. A new study suggests it may be effective in treating alcoholism as well. Here's the CNN article on the topic, and the JAMA article on it too. Though it didn't work for a ton of the study participants (all of whom were heavy drinkers/alcoholics) it did work for a statistically significant proportion of people. Overall drinking decreased in both arms. There are quite a few limits to the study, but it didn't sound like the manufacturer of Topamax, Ortho-McNeill, was interested in pursuing FDA approval for the drug, though they did fund this study. Just to be cynical, Topamax goes off patent next year, and according to the CNN article, they can't market Topamax for alcoholism unless it's FDA approved for the condition.

I thought it was interesting that they felt it was moving towards what Prozac did for depression, and give, in this case, alcoholics a more private way to deal with their illness, rather than entering rehab clinic to dry out. A couple limitations to the study as well: They only followed the patients for 14 weeks, the dose seemed a bit high and thus caused a high incidence of side effects, and, like smoking cessation, I'd really be interested to see this double blinded to included some behavioural modification/support with it as well. Interesting direction with treatment of alcoholism, we'll see where it leads.

Student Pharmacists on Morning Shows

I think we mentioned this in a meeting or two, but this definitely deserves more notice. On Oct. 4th, pharmacists and student pharmacists hung around outside of a bunch of morning news programs and got some airtime, and encourage everyone to, say it with me: "Know your medicine, know your pharmacist." Here's the APhA press release and some pictures of the event. I looked for videos of the event, but didn't find anything. If I do, be assured I'll post it. But, just for good measure, here's a little enjoyable video that many of you may have seen already.

FDA to consider new class of drugs

The FDA has been making some pharmacy news lately, which only makes sense for the Food and DRUG Administration. Apparently the FDA announced back in March at the Annual Meeting in Atlanta that they were going to look closer at the creation of a third class. This floated under the radar for most of us, until the FDA released a statement announcing that they were going to have a public meeting on November 14th to discuss the issue (it's in Washington though...bummer. Oh, and it's a long statement from the FDA too, I think it's just kind of cool to have the original document posted. Gotta love the internet!!) Here are a couple articles on the issue as well: a CNN/Dowjones article and a Reuters article that is a little more in depth and some commentary from mainly OTC companies (they're against it) and from the National Association of Drug Chain Stores (they're for it).

This will be a very interesting story to follow in the coming months, and though I won't be able to make it, here's the link to register for the meeting in D.C. Let me know how it is. However, for a more accessible way to voice your opinion, here's the link to submit comments to the FDA-the link is open until November 28th. Here's your chance to tell the FDA what you think about having a third class of drugs!

Clean Air Act Credited with decreasing Heart Attacks

A recent study in New York found that their 2003 Clean Air Act may have contributed to an 8% drop in heart attacks. Aside from returning from bars and NOT smelling like smoke, I guess an added benefit would be a decrease in risk of an MI. BONUS!!

FDA Updates

A couple of people have let me know about this, so I had better blog on it.

The FDA is beginning a "Drug Safety Newsletter." This will be a quarterly newsletter that will keep you abreast of drug safety reviews, the Adverse Event Reporting System, and many current drug updates. Looks like the blog might be getting replaced after only a couple weeks....

Type II Diabetics QOL Study

Thank you to Ryan Pederson, ex-pres, for forwarding this on. I'm a little late in posting it, and I apologize for that.

This is an absolutely fascinating article discussing the quality of life for diabetics patients. I couldn't find the actual article online (stupid journal limited access....ggrrrrr) but here's the abstract on it.



The gist of the article is this: Patients diagnosed with Type II diabetes would rather deal with the complications of the disease itself i.e. kidney issues, increased risk of cardiovascular death, blindness, loss of limbs etc. in exchange for not having to take all the pills to lower blood glucose, diet and exercise, insulin, and deal with the inconvenience and cost of dealing with their diabetes now.



I think the quote by the lead author Dr. Elbert Huang, assistant professor at the University of Chicago makes many good points:



"The people who care for patients with a chronic disease like diabetes think about that disease and about preventing long-term complications. The people who have a chronic disease think about their immediate lives, which include the day-to-day costs and inconvenience of a multi-drug regimen. The consequences are often poor compliance, which means long-term complications, which will then require more medications."



I think his statement raises many, many questions. How do we as pharmacists approach our treatment? We look at it as a correct answer-Patient has disease X, we treat with drug Y. Next question/patient. Real life, or so I am told since I'm just a student, is a bit more complicated. How will the patient respond, how do we respond, is this what the patient wants, etc. And all of this then deals with compliance, which is of course a huge concern because (and this may come as a surprise to many of you) if you don't take a drug, it doesn't actually work.

I was also very surprised by this for a moment, but then after some thinking about it, I realized that a patient that has had poor diet and minimal exercise-a lifestyle stereotypical of many Type II diabetics-probably won't really like trying to jump through all of the hoops necessary to turn around their lifestyle of poor health.

Other ideas that I won't address since this is already meandering and verbose-but what about the burden on health care for their end-of-life care, how do we then treat patients that aren't complying, and are we simply enabling their poor health by not chastizing them on their lack of compliance

CFC to HFA Albuterol Inhalers

If you work in a community pharmacy lately-you've probably noticed the change from the CFC albuterol inhaler to the HFA inhalers-most likely to the "ProAir" or "Ventolin" HFA, or some others. Usually you just switch the patient over to the HFA inhaler, and none's the wiser-but are they really equivalent?


As Sarah Mallak discussed in MPSA, though there are a lot of similarities between the two options, there are some special consideration we as pharmacists/students need to think about when we dispense them to patients, particularly for the first time. Patients should be instructed to wash their HFA inhaler canister once a week in warm water to prevent clogging. Further information can be found on the article "Withdrawal of albuterol inhalers containing chlorofluorocarbons" in NEJM-I'd link it but I'm not able due to restrictions. A very interesting read!!!

Preliminary study on effects of caffeine and acetaminophen

First off, I would have put Tylenol, but someone doesn't like me using brand names. And I'm all about making everyone happy. I saw a few articles on this, and I thought it was interesting. I think the comment that sums it up is "there are a million miles between E.Coli and humans." However, there is some very serious validity to this article. Here's the link to the Fox News article (no comments on the source, please) It also had an interesting few words from Dr. Steven Lidofsky that even mentioned Cyp2E1 possibly being responsible. Kind of crazy to see that in a general article like this one.

Here's a BBC article on the topic too. Apparently paracetamol is the same as acetaminophen. Oh, those crazy Brits!

Also, this only pertains to high doses of caffeine, so it didn't seem to cause concern with migraine meds that contain caffeine and APAP or Fioricet, oh, excuse me-the butalbital, caffeine and acetaminophen combination drug commonly referred to as Fioricet.

I tried to find the original article on this one; if I do find it, I'll be sure to post it, my faithful blog-reader(s).

HIV Vaccine Progress Halted

James Bischoff pointed this BBC article out to me: Merck, as I'm sure many companies are doing, has been working on a vaccine for HIV, primarily testing on people who are at high risk for contracting HIV: gay men and sex workers in Africa. An independent panel recently suggested halting the trial, saying it was headed for failure. The article says that Merck had been working on the vaccine for 10 years. Hopefully some other vaccines are in the pipeline to treat this disease.

FDA and New powers to watch advertising

Ok, so they can do more than just watch advertising, they can actually stop advertising they deem misleading. I originally heard this on NPR Moneymarket-here's the link with the script of the piece below. If you read the whole thing-you'll see this, but I want to make sure you hear about it: Last year drug companies spent $5.3 billion on advertising. Not research. Not manufacturing. Advertising. But, when you think about all the ads you see for drugs, it makes sense. I also don't know if that was OTC and prescription, or just prescription drugs just to let ya know.

Another good article on this is in the LA Times, found here. It goes into much more detail of how the new Senate bill expands the role of the FDA and gives them more proactive powers. It also discusses the creation of a database that scans for pharmacy and insurance records for patterns of medication problems. Obviously-this is a much more active and more powerful role for the FDA, something that many people say is long over due.

In regards to the database-Two things I consider when I think about this issue. First, I think this could be a big step forward towards creating a more unified drug monitoring system. Think about it: If the FDA can link pharmacy and insurance records, how far off is it before they are looking for patients that are on duplicate therapy or are abusing narcotics? I have no background whatsoever in the topic, but it's something to hope for. On the contrast of that though, is of course cost. Increased monitoring obviously necessitates increased funding. This comes from tax-payers of course, but also from drug companies who must also pay millions of dollars to the FDA for them to review their New Drug Applications. Pros and cons to both.

Flu Update

With flu season approaching, third years studying hard to prepare for their immunization clinic and American Pharmacists Month getting ready to advertise to the world that people need to be immunized, several questions come to mind-Will their be enough vaccines? Whatever happened to bird flu? Who needs to be vaccinated?

Well, how about the first one: Will their be enough vaccines? I just saw an article on Time (always a reputable medical source...but hey, we're not getting too in depth I suppose) that states the CDC will have around 132 million vaccines-but, not everyone who should get vaccinated, does get vaccinated. This article does go into pretty decent detail about who should be getting the vaccine, but ask any third year student for more details. I know I'm learned up!! Also, this articl also mentions that the FluMist vaccine is now approved for children down to the age of 2-so classmates, you can be confident in putting that answer down for next weeks quiz!

Another item that has been around for the past couple years, and that is of course, the Avian Flu or H5N1 (so, it's a Wikipedia link, but it has a good summary of the flu, sorry for my references). Also, here's a link to the CDC current situation-Nothing too current, but of course it's not to flu season yet. I hate the "Wait and see" method, but with no vaccine, I guess that's what we have to do. And hope to be at the front of the line for Tamiflu.

"Poisonous Cocktail"

Recently in the New York Times, there was an article discussing the danger of multiple medications and really not keeping up on what you are taking, understanding the risks. For many of us, this is of course, obvious. It's what we are trained to do-understand people's medications and side effects, etc. But how many patients know this, or think of their medications as inert, and not the potential poisons they are?

I'm not posting this article or discussing it in the meeting this Thursday simply because of the content-I think it also illustrates two important items that we will focusing on this year: The importance of media and the role that it can play in influencing behavior and health literacy.

When I was reading this article, even though it is an op-ed piece, I couldn't help but think: How many people will read this? And how many of them will take a look at their meds, and think "You know, I'm on a couple of these medications..." Or that they are getting older, or don't understand why they are taking their meds, or chronically use OTC medications... Think of how many more patients this article reaches than what we as students do to encourage patients to know about their medications? Media has such a powerful voice, and that's why for American Pharmacists Month we are making such a strong push to engage the media-but more on that later.

Another note-read the language in this article. I don't know a whole lot about "health literacy" but it struck me how simplistic this article was written, but yet how easy it is to read for most patients to read. But, more on that later as we near MRM and the "Embrace Health Literacy" workshop.

HC Squared

Health care * Hilary Clinton=News. I'm not sure if it's because I listen to NPR while stuck in traffic (which happens a lot if you drive 94 at 8am and 5pm) but I've heard quite a bit of press devoted to this in the past day or two, and we are almost 14 month from the Presidential election. The last time there was this much hype and money thrown about was the race for MPSA president....oh wait....

Back to the topic at hand: Health care, and more importanly health care reform. Me, personally, I'm not all that politically informed beyond listening to the radio, which works well because I don't want to be biased on this blog. I save that for my other blog: http://www.jaredisalwaysrightnoquestions.com/. But, I thought I would dig a little deeper for you MPSAers and provide some info.

Hilary Clinton's last foray into health care reform occurred way back in 1993-94 when her hubby was president. In fact, Dr. Schondelmeyer served on the committe that worked on this project. I was about to enter the awkward age of puberty so I don't remember too much about it, but it was a big defeat for what became known as "Hillarycare" She was pretty much lambasted for her role, and it very likely will taint her next effort to take on the health care crisis. Lots of comments can be found, but here is the CNN article on her plan here. If I see an interesting comment or discussion, I'll try and post it, or if you, the loyal blog-reading public see one, please post it on the comments section.

I don't think I need to lay out how important all of this is to pharmacy. I think we all have experienced the patient that doesn't have insurance, or has recently gone off insurance and is buying medications that may keep them or a loved one alive. I don't know the right answer to solve the health care crisis, but it doesn't take an intelligent person to point out that at some point, something is going to have to change. Whether that is this plan, or something very different, I think we and the rest of the public need to look through the individual plans themselves before criticizing and saying it won't work. My two cents.

Diabetics like Inhaling Insulin

So, this is kind of interesting-according to a recent study, use of Exubera over insulin acheived comparable results, but patients had greater satisfaction. An interesting point with this-the patients were aged 12-17 and had type 1 diabetes. Check it out here.

Health Disparities Lectures

There are a few of us that are taking the Cultural Competency class, taught by Dr. Doneka Scott and Dr. Paul Ranelli. It is a class that will deal with the wide health disparities that still exist between different groups of people in the U.S. Though these lectures aren't a part of the class, I wanted to make public, or at least as public as this blog is (i.e. I check it from multiple computers, and no one else does) a couple of public lectures that Dr. Scott let us know about.

"The Role of Health Services Research in Closing the Health ServicesGap for Racial and Ethnic Minorities"

The next Distinguished Visiting Scholar Series in Health Disparitieslecture will feature Margarita Alegria, Ph.D., director, Center forMulticultural Mental Health Research; professor, Department ofPsychiatry, Harvard Medical School and the Cambridge Health Alliance.The event will be held on noon-1 p.m., Sept. 21, in Moos Tower1-450G.

“The Elephants in the Room: Social Justice, Public Health, and Health Inequities”

Nancy Krieger, Harvard School of Public Health, will present 9:30-10:30 a.m., Sept. 28, at Coffman Union Theater. This event is part of the Carl J. Martinson, M.D., Lectureship in Preventive Medicine, presented by the School of Public Health’s Division of Epidemiology and Community Health.

When Dr. Fecik spoke of getting out there and experiencing things outside of the classroom, I feel he would say that these sessions would complement the list of 10 items that distinguish professionals.

Dr. Fecik's Speech-Professionalism

Dr. Robert Fecik was our speaker for the Welcoming Banquet-and he gave a great speech about becoming professionals. He said it wasn't something that one achieves by simply sitting in a classroom and studying out of assigned texts-there is much more involved with it. A student must pursue interests with passion, to "Be Brave" and continually ask questions. He also spoke of Ten Qualities that distinguish a professional-something that I feel is a very difficult thing to define. These qualities were published in a White Paper and expanded upon in the APhA-ASP Toolkit. Of those ten, only a few were qualities that one could gain directly from the classroom; to achieve the rest, students need to find them in different settings: Professional organizations like MPSA or the fraternities and other organizations. Meaning, get out there and do something. And if it's with MPSA, even better.

Update on Witt's Pharmacy in Rushford

Lots of developments for flood-damaged Rushford and SE Minnesota-cleanup continues and state aid is on its way. While this is great for the area, and support will still be given to Witt's Pharmacy, MPhA and Tom Witt say more help is needed-check out the letter here. Also, we at MPSA will have a bucket to pass around to collect support for Witt's Pharmacy-and MPSA will match donations up to $500!!! That's $2 for the price of $1!! I look forward to seeing you this afternoon at the meeting and at the Recognition Banquet!

Calling all Twin Cities Marathon/10 mile participants!

For this year's American Pharmacists Month we will be recognizing participants who will be running in the Twin Cities Marathon, as well as have pharmacy students there to talk to the public and, of course, cheer participants on!! So, we want to know who you are!!! Send an email to Jared at ande7977@umn.edu if you are participating, or know a pharmacist who is participating, and we'll let you know how you can help out!

NAPLEX Suspension

It's likely you have heard about this already, but a pharmacy prof at the University of Georgia was recently busted for giving students answers to the NAPLEX. More information here. Some of the comments below talk about the impact of the delay-Students losing signing bonuses, questioning the ethics of the profession and more. There are also many students who defend the professor and question why he is being persecuted-possibly because he is not affiliated with KAPLAN, ASHP, etc. Good discussions on both sides.

Relief for Witt's Pharmacy and Rushford

In today's meeting, Craig talked about the need to help out in Rushford, in particular with Witt's Pharmacy-an independent pharmacy in the small town of Rushford Minnesota. The pharmacy's inventory, records and everything else were destroyed; but people still need their medications. MPhA has organized a relief fund and issued a release asking for help. Student's interested in heading down to Rushford can contact Craig at glie0008@umn.edu and be put in contact with people who are heading down to help out. We will also be passing around a bucket to collect donations to help get Tom back on his feet. Also, here's some current news on relief efforts from the Red Cross.

APhA Responds to CMS requirement of Tamper-Resistant pads for Medicaid patients

For many in the profession, I think this one slipped in the backdoor. CMS, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services will require patients to have a prescription written from tamper resistant pads by October 1st. Here's a link to the article from APhA.

A couple things to think about:

As they say in the response-What about emergency prescriptions? And paying for the second dispense? Also, think about this: Pharmacies could possibly be punished for something that a physician is ultimately responsible for: the writing of the prescription. But, pharmacies and pharmacists will be held liable.

This bill was passed under an Iraq Defense bill, and little discussion occurred on it. But look at the implication that it has for the practice of pharmacy! If nothing else, I think this illustrates the power that legislative and political issues have over how we practice, and why it is so important that we stay active and involved on that front. We'll try and keep you posted on further developments.

Welcome

Welcome to the new MPSA blog for the Twin Cities campus. We will try to use this as a forum to provide information on events in the College and MPSA, as well as happenings in the profession of Pharmacy. Let Jared know of anything that you think belongs on here, and we'll see what this becomes. Have a great year, and we'll see you at the meetings in WDH 7-135 on Thursday 12:15-1:15pm. Check out www5.pharmacy.umn.edu/mpsa/ for more information. Let Jared know what you think about the blog at ande7977@umn.edu.