Tracking

A secretive, for-profit service called ScriptCheck keeps track of all your prescriptions, even those you pay for with cash. Life insurers pay for the data.

Read more at the link below

Your prescription history is their business

Mary Jane for Your Daughter Jane

 From the ASHP Headlines

Christie Approves Medical Marijuana For Children.

The CBS Evening News reported that while New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed part of a bill legalizing edible marijuana for pain relief, he did sign off on making it available for children under age 18 with certain chronic illnesses, if certain changes are made. Unlike 17 other states that only require one doctor to authorize medical marijuana for children, Christie will support the bill with a requirement for authorization from both a pediatrician and psychiatrist. Christie wrote, “While many will disagree with the decision to allow minors access to marijuana, even for serious illnesses, parents should remain empowered to make a choice based on their own reflections, study and physician consultation.”

        NBC Nightly News reported that either the pediatrician or psychiatrist has to be enrolled in the state’s marijuana program. The synthesized marijuana will not have the chemical that makes people high, but will have higher amounts of the chemical that impacts the brain to reduce problems like seizures.

        The New York Times (8/16, Zernike, Subscription Publication) noted the New Jersey marijuana registry includes two pediatricians and 16 psychiatrists. Parents of sick children oppose the double authorization requirement because “pediatricians and psychiatrists often know so little about the program that they do not want to support it, and finding a registered doctor willing to prescribe to a child is already difficult.”

        The Wall Street Journal (8/17, Haddon, Subscription Publication) added that marijuana for a child may also be authorized by three doctors, if none of them are on the registry. Christie is putting tight regulations on medical marijuana to not repeat the problem of other states having runaway growth for the industry.

        The Washington Post (8/16, Blake) reported in its “Post Politics” blog that State Assemblywoman Linda Stender criticized Christie saying, “it’s unfortunate that these families were forced to wait nearly two months while this legislation languished on the governor’s desk.”

        The Los Angeles Times (8/17, Mueller) noted that Christie’s decision “to allow sick children access to forms of pot that can be eaten,” is a move “supported by parents worried that the dry-leaf and lozenge forms of the drug pose health concerns.”

        Bloomberg News (8/16, Dopp) reported that Christie originally delayed the medical marijuana program established by his predecessor over concerns of violating Federal law.

        The AP (8/19, Santi, Mulvihill) reports that though the New Jersey legislature has a voting session scheduled for Monday, when it might consider Christie’s revisions is unclear.

        CBS News (8/16, Miller) reported Christie indicated, “I am making commonsense recommendations to this legislation to ensure sick children receive the treatment their parents prefer, while maintaining appropriate safeguards.”

        NBC News (8/16) reported Christie explained limiting the strain cultivation limit “will allow dispensaries to develop products tailored to the needs of particular patient populations, and thus provide additional options to those in need.”

        CNN (8/16, Frerrigno, Koenig, Hudson) reported that parent Brian Wilson, who forced Christie to act by confronting him at a campaign stop, said, “While it is a small victory ... it really just maintains the idea of making (New Jersey) one of the worst medical marijuana programs in the country. So it’s a small victory but it’s kind of ludicrous in a lot of ways.”

        MSNBC (8/16, Lockie) reported that New Jersey’s only medical marijuana dispensary re-opened last Thursday after a lack of supply closed it for seven weeks. Later this year, two more dispensaries are scheduled to open.

        The Bergen (NJ) Record (8/16, Hayes, Williams) reported that pediatric neurologist Dr. Rosario Trifiletti said marijuana is better than strong medications on the market for treating children with severe epilepsy, though Dr. Stephen Thompson, chief of pediatric neurology at Hackensack University Medical Center, “cautioned that child use of marijuana should be a last resort.”

Current Read

Huffington Post

Counter Intuitive Rx Blog

A recent post by USA Today

The DEA accused Walgreens on Friday of endangering public safety and barred the company from shipping oxycodone and other controlled drugs from its Jupiter, Fla., distribution center.

The move is the latest action by the Drug Enforcement Agency in a crackdown on pharmaceutical companies, drug distributors and drugstore chains that sell large amounts of highly addictive narcotics. Earlier this week, the DEA revoked the controlled substances licenses for two CVS pharmacies in Sanford, Fla., accused of dispensing excessive amounts of oxycodone.

The DEA says Walgreens failed to maintain proper controls to ensure it didn't dispense drugs to addicts and drug dealers. Large increases in narcotic sales could be a sign that drug addicts and dealers are using fake prescriptions to purchase the drugs, the agency says. The addicts and dealers often get the prescriptions from clinics, known as "pill mills," where doctors prescribe the drugs after only cursory examinations.

And the community Pharmacist's blog response

My point is, why don’t they act on the entity that INITIATES the prescriptions? Because they are infringing on a physician’s decision making and that scares them to death! They are not physicians! By the time they get around to the obvious, thousands if not millions of prescriptions have been written.
Instead they pick the easy target, the community pharmacist. They question OUR judgment and give us ZERO opportunity to respond or explain why our decisions are made. They limit our ability to purchase medications. They threaten our suppliers if they don’t collect our patient’s private health data and turn it over to them.
We are being used as scapegoats for the meth craze and now the oxycodone explosion. The DEA is a typical bureaucratic entity that rather than solves the actual problem, would rather collect fines and pat themselves on the back publicly than listen to community pharmacists who MIGHT actually have some good ideas on how to address this problem.

Epiphany

Is it weird to think that I understand each bullet of the current Journal of Clinical Oncology?

This June's issue highlights.

Read more here

Adult prescription growth linked to kids' poisonings

As adult prescription medication use has increased, so have rates of poisonings in children of all ages.

Read more here

Senate rejects bill on prescription monitoring program

California lawmakers fail to pass a measure calling for higher fees for pharmacists and doctors and a tax on drug makers to improve CURES' narcotics-tracking database.

Read more here.

Pierce, but not Pierce Morgan

Just wanted to share a great writer and great read with you.

Charles Pierce account of the Boston Waterton events for Esquire here.

Enjoy,

- Nicole

Dopamine and Neuropsychopharmacology

LA Times Article

The reality

Too Soon

The recent news of Kobe Bryant's Achilles tendon has led me to learn more about his sports physician and philanthropist, Dr. Patrick Soon.

Dr. Soon is definitely an inspiration for anyone looking to match pharmacy, business, sports and health.   Read more about this doctor here:

Huffington Post Article on Dr. Soon
Forbes Biography

Dr. Soon & The Black Mamba

NY Time's Wars on Drugs

There is an analogy, perhaps, between the military’s use of psychoactive drugs and the practice of pumping athletes full of steroids so they can continue to compete despite physical pain; athletes — and also soldiers — whose performance is chemically enhanced in this way may, however, unwittingly sustain more serious injuries as a result.

682 percent increase in the number of psychoactive drugs — antipsychotics, sedatives, stimulants and mood stabilizers — prescribed to our troops between 2005 and 2011. That’s right. A nearly 700 percent increase — despite a steady reduction in combat troop levels since 2008.

Read more here

Residency Match from CU

Residency Match

Pharmacists as providers

California bill recognizes pharmacists as providers
APha New Article

Repost of 2013 Match Statistics

- 6% increase in candidates seeking PGY1 residencies,
- 10% increase in candidates seeking PGY2 residencies,
- 2,495 PGY1 positions matched, a 10% increase in filled positions, and
- 601 PGY2 positions matched, a 19% increase in filled positions

This year 1,438 individuals seeking PGY1 residencies did not match, and 199 PGY1 positions remain unfilled post match.  For PGY2 residencies there were 176 unmatched individuals and 91 unfilled PGY2 positions

Click on this link for the ASHP article directly


"Stay Thirsty My Friend"
- Nicole

Breathe Easy

UCLA INSPIRE trial and Lung Transplantation

6.75 lbs

Recent OC Weekly article here

"Little Saigon Ecstasy Pill Ring Busted By Drug Task Force Agents"

felony charges of possession with intent to distribute 4,934 grams of Ecstasy (a.k.a. MDMA) in Los Angeles and Orange County."

The case began in January when members of the Torrance Police Department's vice and narcotics division raided a suspected drug dealer's residence, found 3,063 grams of MDMA powder, 10,000 packaged Ecstasy pills and more than $120,000 in cash"

Google calculator Math: 3,063 grams = 6.75276 lbs of powder

Great read

From LA Times

Got Milk? In Denver

Looks like our campus was mentioned in a Muscle Fitness post today! 

School Pride

With such a large campus, our Anschutz Medical campus feature different graduate programs, each with it's own faculty members that run their own research labs.  I'm kind of curious to know which lab ran this experiment.

Got Milk? In Denver?

Anyhow, the article features information about hydration, the best form of creatine and milk.   Who knew milk is shown to have these fat-burning properties?  I wonder if Almond Milk has the same qualities considering it is also a calcium source as the study mentioned ;)

Check out the link to the Muscle Fitness article here


Happy Saturday night everyone!

African American Health Fair

These pictures are out of order but enjoy!
Will upload from my computer tomorrow.

NPR & Blog readings

Take a look at some of the interesting articles I've read today.  I've highlighted some of the keypoints from each article so you can pick and choose which NPR blog articles best suits your interests (while still trying to preserve some of the mystery of the articles for you to read).

 Happy reading everyone :)

 Free Food or Drugs?

• "Why Didn't Your Doctor Prescribe A Generic? Look In The Mirror."
• Eight in 10 prescriptions are filled with generics rather than brand-name drugs
• The researchers found that doctors' willingness to prescribe a brand was associated with their acceptance of free food from drugmakers. JAMA Internal Medicine 

Pain & Opioids

• "Painkiller Paradox: Feds Struggle To Control Drugs That Help And Harm"
• Michael Israel painkillers for bad cramps in his gut as part of his struggle with  Crohn's disease
• "Michael came over to my bedroom one night and said, 'Pops, I have a problem with the pills,' " says Israel.
• Overdoses have been rising rapidly, now killing more than 15,000 Americans every year. 

33 Shades of a Vanilla Milkshake

•  "Robogut' Makes Synthetic Poop To Treat Stubborn Infections"
• Doctors in Ontario, Canada, developed the synthetic stool — which they call RePOOPulate — to treat people sick with infections from Clostridium difficile, a bacterium  
• Microbiologist Emma Allen-Vercoe, who invented the Robogut, grew the bacteria from her stool and then sequenced the bugs' DNA to figure which species were present.
• an opaque mixture of bacteria, which Allen-Vercoe describes as a "vanilla milkshake." Really.

72 year old marathoner with myeloma

• " Targeted Cancer Drugs Keep Myeloma Patients Up And Running"
• ... a revolution in treating this once-fearsome blood cell cancer, which strikes around 20,000 Americans every year
• In the decade since his diagnosis, Wright has averaged seven marathons a year. He's training for his 71st, which will take place in March on Cape Cod.

Your International Ibuprofen- Diclofenac NSAID

• "World's Most Popular Painkiller Raises Heart Attack Risk"
• The painkiller diclofenac isn't very popular in the U.S., but it's by far the most widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, or NSAID, in the world.
• Diclofenac far outsells ibuprofen, naproxen, and other NSAIDs in 15 countries around the world.

 Stroke Therapy: time & choice

• "Widely Used Stroke Treatment Doesn't Help Patients"
• The beautiful idea is the notion that clearing the blocked artery of a stroke patient with a device snaked right up to the blockage would salvage threatened brain cells and prevent a lot of disability.
• Three studies have now found no difference in outcome between patients who got the endovascular treatment along with an intravenous dose of a clot-busting drug called tPA, or Alteplase, and other patients who got only tPA

  11 Month Knee Problems

• " After The Knee Is Fixed, How Long Before The Player Returns?"
• It takes 11 months, on average, for an NFL player to return to play after anterior cruciate ligament surgery
• Cadaver tissue, which is used when a person has no more ligaments to spare, attaches more slowly, which is one reason that orthopedists are experimenting with using pig ligaments instead. 

 

Three years from today

Three years from today may mark the day when Thang Q. Tran can reapply for his pharmacy license in the state of California.


Tran is accused of not keep up-to-date inventory, housed expired medications and "dispensed numerous prescriptions for controlled substances without determining whether any prescription was written for a legitimate medical purpose" at Pacifica Pharmacy at 18682 Beach Blvd.


Read more about this current Orange County Register article here:

Pharmacist who filled narcotics orders will halt fight

California Board of Pharmacy Legal Filings PDF

Abstract

Keeping it simple in life.

Compounding Day

NCPA Compunding Day

Snow days

It snows. Put on your heavy parka. It stops. Sun. Class. It snows again.

Heavenly via iPhone

ED2 North Campus with Bridge to ED2 South

ED1 and Snow

Yes, Snow.

Dr. Lisa Tseng's Over-Prescription Cloud Hangs Over Surf City's Now-Closed Pacifica Pharmacy

OC Weekly Article This Week

Snow day becomes baking day

Happy Sunday everyone!

Denver residents are the biggest snow storm of the season.   As for me personally, any day that is snowing becomes a storm day seeing as I truly miss the sunny California weather.

There are many classmates that are capitalizing on the snow and hitting the slopes. As for me, I'll take this as an occassion for warm hot chocolate (or coffee?), a fleece blanket and some in-between baking.

Earlier this week, I made ready made cookies from a Hershey's package.  Didn't really care for them, but they were a hit amongst some of my classmates during our Instructional Methods class presentations. 

So today, I tried to venture into baking from scratch... After making it,  I realized why I do like the costco cookie dough readymade packs.  I didn't have any butter so I had to make do with what ingredients I did have.  So thank goodness for google and searching "No butter chocolate chip cookies"

Here are the links to the recipes I used:
1) No Butter Recipe
2) Robbi's M&M Cookies Recipe

Honestly, here's why I still love ready make dough.. 1)  The first chocolate chip recipe was so gooey, that I feel like I lost 10% of it transferring it from the mixer to the baking sheet on my hands and spoons.  I'm not sure if using the gluten free flour had anything to do with this??
2) The second M& M cookie recipe was more liquidy.  I substituted apple sauce for shortening and still continued to use gluten free flour.  It was so liquidy to the point that I changed my mind to make cupcakes, but realized I was out of PAM non-stick cooking spray too. HA!  End result: Let's dry making a M&M cookie bread. 

I'll update later with pictures. 

Until next time, stay warm everyone!

Risky Studying?

A 1:30 am MST post is fitting for this post.    Granted, I haven't taken Adderall but am naturally fueled by a sustaining mid-day nap.


One of our recent class lectures focused on ADHD and stimulant treatment.  During lecture, our professor highlighted some recent media publications discussing stimulants and abuse, including the one lined below:

 NY Times Risky Rise of the Good-Grade Pill


“Straight A’s and high SAT scores look great on paper, but they aren’t reflective measures of a student’s health and well-being. We need to better understand the pressures and temptations, and ultimately we need to embrace new definitions of student success. For many families and communities, that’s simply not happening.


Pharmacy students studying away➡➡➡inevitably leading to baking study breaks. Thanks Trader Joes

What's you opinion?

A recent advocacy group post highlights outrage at a pharmacy's use of promoting Oxymorhone as a generic.  Do you agree with the pictures comments?   Or do you think that generic availability can benefit patients, like the elderly,  who may not be able to afford their medications?

Before you scroll down, I've included an clip of Micromedex's information on what Oxymorphone HCl is used for. 

Excerpt from Micromedex electronic database resource

Screen shot of an online post

Dying teen not afraid to tell you about it

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cameron-496668-says-want.html

Colorado Pharmacists Society Journal Club

So today's journal club was well attended by our P2 class.  Today's journal club was presented by our former NCPA president, Clarissa Manzi, who did a great job of reviewing the details and preparing our class for the upcoming exam portion.

In one of our courses, we are responsible for critically analyzing evidence-based medicine, known as EBM. Half of our class has the exam which consists of EBM analysis and Drug Information research today while the other half has it tomorrow.



The topic was interesting and the procedure discussed was something I've never heard about before. One of the treatment groups received feces through a tube that was inserted into the mouth and directly into the stomach.

Take a look at some of the pictures below which include the class audience, the journal title page, Norm our current president, and Caleb who graduated from CU as well and is currently completing his fellowship.

Smaller Classroom Setting

Norm Fenn, our current CPS executive chair

Caleb Oh, PharmD & Current Fellow: always offering tips for Journal Club

Instagrammed

New England Journal of Medicine is considered a reputable source for research publications.  Take a moment to look up the article if you are interested in learning more.

Grammies and Novocaine?

Wonder if Frank Ocean likes/loves Novocaine, or in his case "Novacane"?



Wonder where I can pick up some business casual yellow pants? Ala Frank ocean style

Yellow Lines

Never forgotten

Our recently monthly seminar at school focused on peer support services for pharmacists, pharmacy students and other professionals. Many of my classmates and I heard the story of current pharmacist on probation during the first week of our schools orientation.

But somehow hearing it today there were parts that made it more home felt. I wasn't sad that she had her license suspended or her judgment deferred, I had empathy.

There was a brief moment towards the end of the seminar when a peer advisor was speaking about the incidence of prescription drug abuse. Then sitting amongst my classmates I had a flashback and I fought hard to not blink my eye. The tears eventually slowly trickled onto my cheek. It became real.


I quickly went to wipe my lower lash lie with a seemingly cool natural swipe. It was all too real that I immediately took my phone and texted Jhonny to tell him what I just relived and remembered.

I put away this brief experience to continue about my day with classes and preparing for our exam today. This was yesterday.

Tonight I went to check the online newspaper from back home to read more about other national news and I found this on the main-page.

#neverforgotten