Edition #32 Newsletter

Welcome to Edition #32 of Computachem Newsletter.
We have another interesting selection of articles in this edition, which should stimulate your thought processes as to where the pharmacy profession is headed.
If you are moved to make a comment, then please post it on the reader's forum.
There is a link to the forum posted on each article page.
Two writers (Ken Stafford and Pat Gallagher) are temporarily absent for this edition, but we welcome two new writers, Mark Coleman and Simon Rudderham. Simon is a final year student at Sydney University, who was invited to observe the workings of the new Tiwi Island pharmacy. We asked him to comment, and he has reported in on the Roundup page.
Mark Coleman has agreed to do a series on integrated health and the potential effects on pharmacy. This is not good news, and is yet another development that community pharmacists will have to contend with.
Roy Stevenson is also back with us after a brief interlude, and was finally able to replace his keyboard for his laptop computer for a very reasonable price. He has vowed never to drink red wine and compute at the same time, ever again.

Rollo Manning makes some interesting comments and comparisons with suburban pharmacy vs rural pharmacy. He is also maintaining the link to his model for the "Job of a Pharmacist" (you will find it at the foot of his article), and will be regularly updating it. You are invited to take the occasional visit.

Heather Pym has an extremely interesting article on working with GP's. I can honestly say that I do look forward to receiving Heather's copy, because I think she has a far richer professional life than I do. Perhaps we can all aspire to this level one day.

Brett Clark has been unable to contribute regularly, because of his enormous workload at ePharmacy. To fill the gap, he has allowed the editor to adapt the paper he presented at the recent E-Pharma conference. It will run over two or three articles, and you could learn a lot from this young and enthusiastic entrepreneur. We need more like him.

Jon Aldous continues his education series, this time his subject is "Learning Internet Standards". He comments on the recent online standards for Internet Pharmacies published by the Pharmaceutical Society. It is good to at last have some guidelines, so that e-commerce developments can occur without major drama, as has occurred in the past.

Roy Stevenson gives us some observations garnered from his locum activity, and points out that all is not well in community pharmacy, and many appear to be cutting corners, in an effort to "make do" due to staff shortages, stress levels and overwork.
What are the immediate answers?
Read and find out.

Peter Sayers is back, quietly developing his idealised model for consultant pharmacy services, and wonders if the process being developed through the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacists is creating a "true" consultant.
This is thought provoking material, and the question is asked, "Are we repeating history and making some of the same mistakes over again?".
Let us hear your views by posting them on the forum from a link located on each article page.

The newsletter archives are now fully searchable via the search engine on the left hand side of this page. If you would like to find similar articles to the above material, please enter the appropriate keyword(s). To retain context with multiple keywords or phrases, please enclose in inverted commas.

Back to Article Index Edition #32

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