During residency at the University of Washington in Seattle, Traci White, PharmD, spent a lot of time on rotations in the ICU as part of the team providing intensive care to critically ill patients. What struck her about this work, she said, was “You’re looking at paper, numbers, data, and graphs. You’re talking a lot about the patient— you’re discussing everything about that patient. But you have no idea who that patient really is.”

Sonya Collins

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) received the following reports of injection and wrong-route errors that will likely happen again unless risk reduction strategies are implemented.

Institute for Safe Medication Practices

New and relatively low-priced at-home COVID-19 tests are now available at local pharmacies and can also be shipped directly to a patient’s home.

Clarissa Chan, PharmD

The potential cardiac effects of lamotrigine were added to its label late last year, and in March 2021, FDA released a drug safety communication highlighting the increased risk of arrhythmias in patients with heart disease who use lamotrigine.

Maria G. Tanzi, PharmD

The shift to quality-based incentives continues to emerge in pharmacy. The Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) is currently working to develop pharmacy measures for A1C and blood pressure reporting; adherence to medications for hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes treatment; and antidepressant medication management.

Loren Bonner

At the beginning of the pandemic, the world was desperate to find therapies that could improve outcomes in patients with COVID-19. The urgency brought repurposed drugs into the spotlight, but studies were poorly designed with many limitations and biases.

Clarissa Chan, PharmD

According to CDC’s COVID-19 data tracker, as of press time, approximately 52% of the U.S. adult population was fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and 62.8% of U.S. adults have received at least one dose.¹  Vaccine uptake has continued to increase since the initial authorization in December 2020, but more recent data suggest that demand for the COVID-19 vaccine may be reaching a plateau.²

Maria G. Tanzi, PharmD

More than 150 million Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Pharmacists have played a critical role in the effort it took to get this far. The crucial work of administering the vaccines, which pharmacists have done tirelessly, is just one piece of it. Pharmacists have also spent the last 7 months educating their patients, neighbors, and others about COVID-19 vaccines.

Sonya Collins

Updates from FDA

A new report from the American Heart Association (AHA) strongly links adverse pregnancy outcomes with a woman’s risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Loren Bonner

The opioid epidemic continues to evolve. In addition to seeing more overdose cases attributed to fentanyl, officials in some U.S. states have noticed a significant uptick in a new, dangerous street drug detected in fatal overdose cases.

Loren Bonner

If you are wondering what health care disparities might look like in medication use for chronic diseases, a new study published in JAMA Network Open can serve as just one example.

Loren Bonner

In early April, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published three independent case series of 39 patients who developed a newly described syndrome characterized by thrombosis and thrombocytopenia soon after they were vaccinated with AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine (which is not available in the United States).

On May 27, FDA expanded the indication for rimegepant (Nurtec ODT—Biohaven) to include preventive treatment in adults with episodic migraine, defined as fewer than 15 headache days per month.

Cara Aldridge Young

In today’s climate of self-management for optimal health and wellness, use of prebiotics and probiotics has become increasingly popular.

Daniel L. Krinsky, RPh, MS

Many patients with chronic pain turn to alternative, complementary therapy as part of their pain management. Acupuncture has been gaining legitimacy for decades and was approved as a medical therapy in the United States in the 1990s.

Mickie Cathers

Trending Topics in Health-System Pharmacy

Regardless of where you live, the action in Washington, DC, affects you, your patients, and your practice. Get up to speed on the latest news from federal agencies, Congress, and the White House.

Rachel Balick

Pharmacy technicians may be held liable for malpractice when they breach their duty to patients. A legal case illustrates how miscommunication and a distrustful perspective can serve as the basis for malpractice liability of a pharmacy technician.

David B. Brushwood, BSPharm, JD

Smart pump errors, which involve both human and technical factors, can cause injury or death to patients. Fatigue and distractions plague many busy patient care units and frequently contribute to smart pump errors.

Joey Sweeney, PharmD, BCPS

The “postantibiotic era” is not coming—it is already here. The ubiquity of lower respiratory tract infections makes community acquired pneumonia (CAP) an evident target in limiting antimicrobial exposure. Results from a new study, published in April 2021 in the Lancet by Dinh and colleagues, boasts success for patients with a 3-day CAP treatment course.

Corey Diamond, PharmD

Management of patients with heart failure (HF) has evolved over the past few years, prompting the American College of Cardiology (ACC) to release an updated Expert Consensus Decision Pathway to provide guidance and recommendations on the clinical care of patients with HF with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Maria G. Tanzi, PharmD

The public faces many barriers when accessing mental health resources. Economic barriers can include a lack of health insurance or ability to pay (including premiums and copays). Another barrier is minimal awareness of or education about mental health conditions, available treatments, and services that improve access.

Jeffrey Gold, PharmD, BCPP

APhA Member News

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