Twitter is it used for social or personal use?

Two days ago in my class for school we had a "brief" discussion about twitter, and how and who was using it today.  My professor made the comment that it is being used my more professionals.  I thought and still think the contrary.  I actually find an older blog/article about Twitter usage in the healthcare.  It stated that in 2008 not many hospitals or healthcare professionals were using Twitter as means for communication to the general public.  But by the first quarter of 2009, many hospitals and healthcare organizations created user names and started to tweet about things.  Please the read article, because I believe you will learn something about the usage of twitter in the healthcare world and the great potential it has to help healthcare professionals get important messages out the world by one single 140 character tweet.  Here's the link and enjoy.  I guess now I can some truth in my professor the statement, but still think many more regular people utilizes Twitter for personal use.

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/12/twitter-impact-health-care-2010.html

P.S. follow me on twitter @mp0310

Tablet Devices Get Thumbs-up From Anesthesia Residents

I have searched the internet to look up another valid article suitable for this class.  Some of my blogs were just related to health information rather than health/medical informatics.  This article I am about to post for everyone to read was about anesthesiology residents and fellows at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine switch from paper to having an iPAD for their rounds and things for the hospital time.  I feel this groundbreaking in the profession of healthcare period.  The article states that the residents and fellows are able now to watch live videos of things that are going on now to get a better learning privileges.  I know some people may think that HIPAA could be violated, but I believe if it is used for educational purposes then I don't see any problems.  I believe this direction for all healthcare professionals to go in would be great!  Check it out!

http://www.anesthesiologynews.com/ViewArticle.aspx?d=Technology&d_id=8&i=October+2011&i_id=768&a_id=19194

Publix and MTMs

I absolutely love Twitter.  I am on twitter a couple of times a day.  I read a lot of stuff on there good and bad.  I am following many students from my informatics class and came across a tweet that one of my classmates posted.  It was about Publix Pharmacy partnering with Adheris to offer MTM services to their customers.  I believe that this is great thing to do and other pharmacies should follow suit.  Here's the article for a great short read.

http://www.drugstorenews.com/article/publix-offer-adheris-medication-education-adherence-programs-pharmacy-customers

The proposed "NEW" loan/debt management

I have been trying to keep up with politics and news lately.  One thing that caught my attention and many of my classmates was the plan President Obama is trying to put into effect.  Click this link and read it.  I believe it affects all of us.  This can ease the burden of many students in paying their loans off.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/25/news/economy/Obama_student_loan/

This I believe is a move into the right direction on the part of the government!  This action can actually help the economy, and I believe could help many pharmacists and future pharmacists to have money free money to create things that the economy has been lacking like new apps on healthcare adherence.

Is working in the pharmacy a safe place?

I usually post my updates/entries for my blog with a link for my followers and readers to go to and read, but today I am not.  The reason for this particular blog entry is because when searching for interesting articles using google the main articles I found were about pharmacies getting robbed or someone getting arrested for X, Y, and Z for pharmacy related crimes.  So, I thought it might be appropriate to write about this, and see what many of my fellow colleagues feel about this.  I know in my own life I have 1.5 years left until I am a pharmacist, and some others my have less or more time then myself.  But actually seeing the many robberies in the news today has alarm me.  What do you guys think about the amount of crime that is being reported in our profession?  Do you feel safe at work or want some kind of actions to be in place to ensure your safety?  I wonder what things pharmacist can create to ensure our safety as a profession.  I wonder if someone can create an app or device other than the silent alarms that many pharmacies do not have in their stores that we can have in the pharmacy that will alert police department of robberies that are happening in their stores. I have an opinion, but I want to see the response of others before I state my own.

Challenges Ahead for Independent Pharmacies....

After being in my informatics class for about 2 months I can honestly say that I am learning a lot.  I already had an twitter account, but I was using it for personal reasoning.  Now, while in this class I started to follow some healthcare professionals and organizations.  From this I found an interesting article about Independent pharmacies and their future.  Here's the link.

http://pharmacytimes.com/web-exclusives/Independent-Pharmacsts-Face-Challenges-Head-On

The article goes into great detail about how independent pharmacies' futures are in jeopardy.  Express scripts and Medco are potentially merging together to almost monopolize the pharmacy market.  This will greatly affect independent pharmacies as they try to get medications and scripts for their pharmacies to continue their business.  Also, it also talks a new payout system for medicaid which will give them a lower payout.  Thus, the lower reimbursements will have a lower margin for profits.  Take a look and tell what you think.

To take the pill or not to take the pill

I found another interesting article in the online searching about things related to pharmacy.  I happened to come across this particular article......

http://www.remember.org/educate/medexp.html

This article talked about a lady was diagnosed with breast and kidney cancer that recently lost her job and her insurance was cut.  She said she had to pay over $700 a month on those medications alone.  Lucky she had the cash for those medications,  and she actually beat her cancers with the medication adherence and surgeries to remove her breasts and one of her kidneys.  But unlike her, many Americans are facing hard times and the escalating drug prices.  Doctors today when prescribing most of the times do not think about the prices for the drugs.  A lot of the time they prescribe medications that do not have generics....  Leading to high prices $$$.   With limited cash flow many Americans are faced with adherence problems and thus make our jobs harder daily.  Please read and comment on our thoughts about the article or the topic itself.

Melvin