Content about Drug Fix

NEW YORK To paraphrase a quote often attributed — but probably incorrectly — to 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, if you like either laws or sausages, it’s best not to watch them being made.

That maxim could certainly apply to the seemingly endless bickering over the details of the health-reform debate in Congress. But in an era of constant Internet news feeds, blogging and instantaneous, on-the-spot reporting and analysis, it’s virtually impossible to avoid the spectacle.

NEW YORK Convenience and value. That’s what community pharmacy and their retail clinic partners deliver to their patients. And that’s what the Department of Defense is counting on in covering immunizations at local pharmacies and identifying convenient care clinics as network providers — two separate pieces of news issued within the past month that really underscore the importance of pharmacies and retail clinics in the delivery of health care today.

NEW YORK Ignorance is not always bliss. For as much such associations as the Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition assert that the dietary supplement business is in fact regulated, there still are a host of organizations that ought to know better, suggesting it isn’t.

If “Supplement Safety Now” is successful, it stands to increase the cost of doing business for retailers and supplement suppliers without making one dent into the illicit business of steroids.

NEW YORK The expansion of MinuteClinic's partnership with Humana not only further illustrates the important role that retail-based clinics play in the U.S. healthcare system and the model's growing acceptance among third-party payers, but it also underscores the significance of worksite clinics.

NEW YORK The fact that Roche has enhanced its capabilities across its iPhone app platform really only means one thing: Roche has dialed into a new way to reach its users, and it’s a way that is very rapidly growing in market share.

And what should be really telling about all of this iPhone action — it’s all opt-in, meaning consumers are actively interested in engaging with the manufacturers of their healthcare products in an effort to better manage their health.

NEW YORK Pharmacogenomics in Aisle 1?

Not quite, but the continued evolution of Kerr’s Community Healthcare Center store concept certainly offers a glimpse into what role community pharmacy could play in the American healthcare system of the future — and it goes far beyond just MTM. Like the deal CVS Caremark announced last week with Generation Health, pharmacogenomics, the study of how genetics influence drug response, represents the new frontier of community pharmacy.

NEW YORK If anyone still doubted the extraordinary contributions that pharmacists can bring to the nation’s costly and overloaded healthcare system, the Nov. 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine should lay their doubts to rest. In a report on a new and innovative approach to treating hypertension, the publication highlighted the impact that a true working collaboration between doctors and pharmacists can have on successful patient outcomes.

NEW YORK The simple fact is that healthcare reform in this country has to be paid for somehow. But cutting OTCs out of FSAs amounts to an additional healthcare tax levied against Americans actually trying to save money on health care today. That’s just backward thinking.

NEW YORK Men may not like to be labeled as high-maintenance, but here’s a little secret: Many men care a great deal about their appearance, especially their facial hair.

A lot of guys today are sporting facial hair, whether it is a beard or a goatee, so it is important to better understand what tools guys can't live without and where they turn to for grooming tips and advice.

NEW YORK Don’t be surprised to see an “Under New Management” sign hanging from the door of Mead Johnson’s doors sometime soon — the split-off makes it easier now for Mead Johnson to be acquired, and it just may be a very lucrative target.

NEW YORK If nothing else, this survey reinforces the following two points: Retail pharmacists are oft-utilized recommenders of nonprescription remedies, and consumers are more and more turning to their pharmacists' OTC recommendations in an effort to save money in this tight economy.

NEW YORK The United States has long been a laggard in healthcare information technology, but the country lately has undergone a Cambrian explosion of e-prescribing, as numbers from Walgreens and the e-prescribing network Surescripts demonstrate. The $19 billion that the federal stimulus package offers as an incentive to adopt HIT likely will accelerate the trend.