All News

A former West El Paso, Texas pharmacist will represent himself in a retrial on charges he fraudulently billed insurers for prescriptions never dispensed and sold drugs to an undercover federal agent, according to a published report.

In a nonacademic healthcare system, an advanced clinical pharmacy services program, created and led by an internal medicine-trained clinical pharmacy specialist, made a positive impact on hospitalized patients through a number of drug intervention recommendations.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) is providing quality improvement strategies for pharmacy practice settings across the continuum of care.

With this article, a group project from reader Pete Kreckel, Rph, and his wife, daughter, and son-in-law, Drug Topics launches a new series that will present your stories: how you came to pharmacy, how your path unfolded, and where it led you. Our goal is to show new pharmacists how many choices and opportunities appear to those whose minds are open to new possibilities. Here's your chance to share what you have learned through your life in pharmacy! Send your contributions to drugtopics@advanstar.com today.

Last fall in light of the prescription opioid abuse epidemic, FDA informed pharmaceutical companies that make opioids that they would be required to conduct postmarketing studies of extended-release/long-acting (ER/LA) opioid analgesics.

Back in 2010, D’Youville College in Buffalo, NY, opened its pharmacy school and welcomed students into a new, $23 million building. The next year, Roosevelt University near Chicago joined the pharmacy school bandwagon and welcomed its first pharmacy students.

An educational video, released at the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy annual meeting in May, helps pharmacists identify the ‘red flags’ of prescription drug abuse and diversion when they dispense controlled substances.

Although there are still unfilled pharmacist jobs in hospitals and health systems, the vacancy rate for pharmacists in such settings is as low as it’s been in more than a decade, according to a staffing survey by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Pharmacists can play a significant role in advocating for the screening and treatment of this disease state. They are in a unique position to improve patient outcomes in late-life depression.

A bill that originally proposed increasing the number of pharmacy techs Florida pharmacists could supervise to six or more has been passed by the state legislators. However, it is unclear whether Governor Rick Scott will sign it.

The guild representing 1,400 pharmacists employed by Kaiser Permanente in Southern California cancelled a strike that was scheduled for Monday.

There are many effective prescription and non-prescription treatments for delirium, Parkinson’s disease, allergic rhinitis, and other conditions in older adults, according to pharmacists and physicians who presented at the American Geriatrics Society Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, Fla., in mid May.

The Maine Board of Pharmacy has directed state attorneys to send a cease-and-desist letter to an online Canadian pharmacy that markets cheap Rx drugs.

A Pennsylvania hospital pharmacist has been arraigned on charges she stole nearly 5,000 oxycodone pills by replacing them with Tylenol, according to a published report.

Due in part to the loss of its UnitedHealth Group business more than two years ago, Express Scripts is laying off pharmacists and other personnel nationwide.

New research published in Obstetrics & Gynecology indicates the oral thrombin inhibitor, dabigatran, and its prodrug, dabigatran etexilate mesylate transfer from pregnant women to their fetuses via the placenta and could potentially affect fetal blood coagulation.

Every now and then when I'm listening to the radio in the car and I hear a female singer lamenting something or other, I think to myself, “That girl is singing my song.” When I read your blog post titled “A dose of pharmacy truth: Report from the front lines,” I almost fell out of my chair, because you were singing my song. I have been that marked pharmacist, except I call it PTFD ([pharmacist targeted for destruction). I didn't coin that term until after I'd already been fired.

The following comes to you courtesy of someone who wishes she’d had this list three months ago …One day you wake up and go to your job, and the next day you don’t have a job to go to. It can be that simple and that complicated, but the real question is, WHAT DO I DO NOW?

In a new FDA study of more than 134,000 Medicare patients, new users of dabigatran (Pradaxa) had a lower risk of clot-related strokes, bleeding in the brain, and death than those taking warfarin. However, dabigatran was associated with a higher risk of major gastrointestinal bleeding than warfarin, according to the FDA’s drug safety communication.

A care transition program for hospital patients with bedside delivery of postdischarge medications and follow-up calls by pharmacists shortly after discharge had the greatest impact on elderly patients, resulting in a lower likelihood of 30-day readmission, according to a report published May 1 in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.

A pharmacist’s participation on medical teams treating HIV-positive hospital patients reduces medication errors as well as spots and corrects them sooner, according to a report published in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy.

Advocacy issues discussed at the conference included two pieces of proposed legislation that would affect compensation for pharmacists and collaborative practice agreements between pharmacists and physicians.

A brief video, accessed by prescription label QR code scanned with a smartphone, instructs patients in proper drug use and much more.

Now more than ever, action by Congress and CMS is needed to alleviate beneficiaries' concerns about access to pharmacies of their choice.

A subanalysis of the Phase 3 ARISTOTLE trial indicates that apixaban reduces the risk of stroke regardless of whether a patient’s blood pressure is controlled.

Medication adherence suffers when patients do not understand dose or use instructions. Pharmacists can use multisensory tools to help patients learn and remember.

New Rx, new generics, and new OTC

Fifty years ago, advertisers said cigarettes were good for you. Nobody believes that anymore. Maybe 50 years from now, no one will think it's okay for cigarettes to be sold in pharmacies.

Five simple words. Here they are.

This pharmacist's decision to follow her bliss has made countless patients a whole lot happier.