Southend Hospital has recently concluded a pilot study into electronic drug administration, using the MediChain Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration EPMA system. The system enables care professionals to enter vital statistics and medication administrative events, view electronic medication administration records and scan the patients' wristbands and medication at the point...
In most mental health systems there are people with severe mental illness who are prone to relapse, have repeated hospitalizations and criminal justice contacts, and disproportionately use the most costly services. Many also have alcohol or drug abuse problems. Such individuals often fail to take their prescribed medications, worsening their...
The use of herbal medications has been steadily increasing. From 1990 to 1997, use of self-prescribed herbal medications increased from 2.5% to 12%, and people consulting herbal medicine practitioners increased from 10.2% to 15.1%. The article considers the case of St. John's wort which although has had multiple claims for...
Express Scripts Fine Settles PBM Mess -- For NowPBMsPublished on discoverwhatyouthink.blogspot.comThe Amazement and the Price of Innovation: PBMsRecently, you may have heard or read in mass media sources about the issue of what are known as pharmacy benefit managers that have clients who are prescribed medications created by what...
Challenges associated with managing medication costs include price inflation, paying for expensive brand medications, and filling non-compensable medications. Without proper management, these challenges can cause an overall rise in the cost of pharmacy expenses and a decrease in insured satisfaction. Auto no-fault insurers can gain more control over medication costs...
The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the impact of pharmacist delivered community-based services to optimize the use of medications for mental illness. Twenty-two controlled (randomized and non-randomized) studies of pharmacists' interventions community and residential aged care settings identified in international scientific literature were included for review. Papers...
Biotechnology derived and injectable medications, known as biotech drugs or medications are the leading edge of medical treatment. Biotech medications refer to a category of high-cost pharmaceutical products that are generally, but not exclusively, biotechnological in nature and are prescribed primarily for the management of chronic illnesses. Most biotech drugs...
HIV treatment medications must confront a difficult subject and still offer hope. The ads for HIV treatment medications can be found throughout the urban landscape, decorating a phone booth here, a billboard there, adding to a general acceptance of medical information in the public sphere. So how do companies position...
Manic symptoms, such as increased activity and speech, distractibility, impulsivity, and grandiosity, in older patients may be indicative of primary Bipolar disorder BP; but they also may be secondary to medical problems or medication side effects. This article reviews the diagnostic considerations for primary BP; mania due to general medical...
The growing trend for women to wait in life before having their first child has placed many women at a higher risk for difficult conception. Medications chosen for a patient will vary depending on the identified cause of the infertility. The purpose of this article is to provide information regarding...
The inability to calculate therapeutic dosages for children accounts for the majority of pediatric drug errors. Most pediatric medication errors occur in the prescribing or ordering phase, usually dosing errors, followed by mistakes in administration of the drug. Because most medications are developed in concentrations for adults and do not...
This study reviews Medicaid policies to restrict access to psychiatric medications. Policies on prior authorization, preferred drug lists, limitations on the number of prescriptions, fail-first requirements, and use of generics are reviewed. All states apply one or more of those policies to medications for mental illness, and many apply several....
The paper reports about a survey of a random sample of 1,500 elderly people with chronic diseases, who were enrolled in eight Medicare Choice plans. The plan consisted of zero-premium, $200-$300 annual drug benefit and no deductible. The findings indicated that an estimated 32 percent did not fill a prescription...
The paper summarizes the results of its investigation of some of the business practices of certain U.S. Internet pharmacies that sold narcotics without a prescription. It attempts to obtain information about the sources of hydrocodone that it purchased without a prescription from eight U.S. online pharmacies. Hydrocodone is an addictive...
Results of a new analysis of clinical data for osteoporosis medications, including bisphosphonates, calcitonin, estrogen therapies and SERMS selective estrogen receptor modulators showed that alendronate provided the best protection against non-vertebral fractures. The study used an indirect method to compare six current treatments. This review showed that alendronate was substantially...
A review was conducted by Aon Consulting's Life Sciences Consulting Practice, to thoroughly understand the issues associated with biotech injectable medications, and to determine the best approach for further analysis, an extensive literature. The review, outlined in this white paper below, confirmed the need for sophisticated actuarial modeling tools that...
Two simulation models have been built to quantify the advantages of an electronic medication ordering, dispensing and administration process compared with the current manual process at an acute care academic health sciences centre. The first model represents the current manual system, and has been validated against observed data. The second...
