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pharmacypracticenews.com
The Pharmacist’s News Source Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Edition
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Volume 38 • Number 5 • May 2011
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Psychiatric Medication in this issue Error Rates Slashed Via Clinical Hem/Onc Pharmacy e-Prescribing Initiative Japan nuclear crisis shakes U.S. drug supply.
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omputerized prescribing and error reporting systems combined to reduce the rate of medication mistakes in the psychiatric unit at an inner-city Baltimore hospital by more than 80%, report Johns Hopkins researchers. The findings, published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Practice, represent the largest study to date evaluating such an intervention in the field and extend evidence of the benefit of electronic prescribing in reducing drug errors across all areas of medicine (J Psychiatr Pract 2011;17:81-88). “Whenever there is a human interface with medication, there is a possibility of error,” said Geetha Jayaram, MD, MBA, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore. Everything from indecipherable handwriting and inaccurate transcriptions, to miscalculations and administration mistakes, even
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see DRUG ERRORS, page 71
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Critical Care Statins in the ICU: ready for prime time?
Pain Medicine Pain contracts: are they really worth the hassle?
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n advanced e-learning program offers pharmacists the opportunity to build the skills needed to be tomorrow’s clinical and management leaders, while also earning advanced credit toward master’s degree programs. The program is the result of an alliance between the ASHP Foundation’s Center for Health-System Pharmacy Leadership and GlobalHealth Education, an online educational services firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla. The initiative is an extension of efforts that began in 2008, when the center enrolled its first Pharmacy Leadership Academy (PLA) class. That first class came about in response to research that suggested a dramatic crisis in leadership within health-system pharmacy. “The world has only gotten more complicated
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see ACADEMY, page 64
Helping Cancer Patients Quit Smoking Pays Off
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Operations & Mgmt
Leadership in Action It shouldn’t be lonely at the top.
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Technology
Telepharmacy Rural health-system reaps benefits of round-the-clock drug order review.
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Policy
FDA Watch
Online Academy Prepares Future Pharmacy Leaders
A call to action for the profession
Finally, a new drug for melanoma approved.
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Educational Reviews
Drug Interactions in Post-Kidney Transplant Patients See page
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Optimizing Warfarin Therapy Insert after page
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Quality-of-Life Implications for Patients With Hereditary Angioedema Who SelfAdminister C1 Inhibitor
Salt Lake City—Smokers who develop cancer may think it is too late to improve their health by kicking the habit. That is a dangerous misconception that caregivers need to correct, according to Jane Pruemer, PharmD, BCOP, professor of clinical pharmacy practice at the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati Barrett Cancer Center, in Ohio. “You really need to stress that if they continue to smoke, they are at a greater risk for developing a second
maligancy, worse outcomes in general and poorer quality of life [QoL] than patients who manage to quit.” But merely highlighting those risks is not enough. Pharmacists who encounter such patients “should consider it their duty to also help them quit,” Dr. Pruemer said at the annual meeting of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA). In fact, quitting smoking can be one of the single most effective strategies to improve outcomes in
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see QUIT SMOKING, page 9
In ER-positive breast cancer …
Presurgical Endocrine Therapy May Be Clue to Tumor Resistance Salt Lake City—The way a tumor responds to a short course of endocrine therapy given before scheduled surgery in women with estrogen receptor (ER)–positive breast cancer may predict how the malignancy will respond to long-term adjuvant
antiestrogen treatment, according to new research presented at the annual meeting of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA). Just two weeks of treatment with letrozole in presurgical ER-positive
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see BIOMARKERS, page 23
See page 32
New Product Watson to Launch NulecitTM, a generic version of Ferrlecit
SEVENTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
More Coverage: ✜M TM program a boon to cancer patients
✜T ips for enhancing rituximab safety, efficacy
See page
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✜N avigating cancer pain and drug dependency
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