EDITORIAL

Welcome to i2P for the month of August.
In this edition we welcome Ben Farrell, who is writing on behalf of the Complementary Healthcare Council (CHC), and who is assisting to restore some balance to the other side of the debate post the PAN recall.
We hope you find it informative.

We also discuss events occurring in the world of IT.
Sometimes, you wonder whether it is all worth it. New technology gets more and more complex, as well as expensive.

The people who can afford it do definitely gain more control of their operations, and it is seen as giving an "edge" if you arrive at a point in time with superior technology compared to your competitors. The downside is that real people can become appended to the back end of this technology and the jobs developed become "drone-like" in their application.
I often feel that this is the case in respect of dispensing, where today's dispense systems are wonderfully automated, but as a pharmacist you feel very unfulfilled as all this prescription traffic passes before you, not really requiring much in the way of your skills or input.
The other problem with technology is that it creates a mountain of work to initially establish and implement a system, and then jobs begin to disappear permanently.

There is an article on stolen identities and privacy, and how this is impacting on the cost of new technology, when you have to develop a range of sub-systems to protect the primary system. This often introduces extra work for no return.
The equation seems to be that as an increase in capacity occurs, it is very quickly taken up by disruptive IT rogues, who want to tear down systems that may have a real savings value. Or it may be governments utilising this extra capacity at your cost, by loading you up with higher volumes of statistical output accompanied by a diminishing return for each unit.
There is another article on the patenting of software, which is disturbing, because I can see global corporations generating patents for many software developments, perhaps shutting out the enterprising individual. This trend needs to be modified as it will destroy the spirited entrepreneurs who williingly undertake creative assignments on their own account, to produce some new innovation

Rollo Manning is trying to recruit all pharmacists to the Northern Territory, and it would seem to me that this should be the place to go for adventurous young pharmacists, because it is now developing from a frontier economy to a modern technologically advanced economy. Getting in on the ground floor makes good sense.

Mark Coleman talks about Woolworths and their pharmacy ambitions and points out that this will not necessarily stop at the supermarket front door.
Heather Pym discusses the concept of charging of health services giving preference to those health consumers who can pay a premium price up front.
Karalyn Huxhagen and Simon Rudderham write on pharmacy assistant issues, Ken Stafford worries about new issues in pharmacist professional liability, and Lachlan Rose writes on student placements in rural/isolated settings.

All together, a mix of interesting articles which should stimulate the "grey matter".

Neil Johnston,
August, 2003

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