Pharmacy Voices

Ten years ago, RadioShack was celebrating its 84th year of being in business and was thought of by many as the “go to” place to see new technology. Even though they partnered with Sprint, they couldn’t command enough interest in this world today, where smartphones are the mainstream focus. Didn’t they know that the wearable technology and the Internet of Things was where everything was heading? Didn’t they know that Amazon was going to supply nearly every component of their inventory and ship it quickly without charging sales tax?

Over the years we have gone from mainframes to minis to desktops to laptops and tablets. Now we are entering the “cloud” era — another transformation in how computing technology is deployed and used.

A graduate student here at Auburn is studying optimal methods to deliver information to patients about the medications they are taking. When we began looking into this topic, we were quickly reminded what a confusing mash of terminology is used in this space.

The Pharmacy Health Information Technology Collaborative has released an updated Roadmap for Pharmacy Health Information Technology Integration in U.S. Health Care. The new roadmap provides guidance to pharmacy stakeholders, including vendors, payers, policymakers, and provider organizations.

Pharmacies have faced a constant struggle to obtain reimbursement for providing clinical services in the retail pharmacy space outside of the Medicare Part D market. There are new healthcare financing models that have been introduced in recent years that provide incentives to take a holistic approach to patient management.

My first “George’s Corner” was published in the July 1984 edition of ComputerTalk for the Pharmacist. That was more than 31 years ago (31 years, six issues per year, equals 186 columns — wow).

Here we go with a new catch phrase. First it was the Internet, now it’s the Internet of Things (IoT). According to Wikipedia, “things” in this case are physical objects “embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable objects to collect and exchange data.”

The 21st Century Cures Act legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives on July 10, 2015, with a vote of 344 to 77. The act’s intent is to remove barriers to innovation, allowing the rapid pace of scientific discovery we are experiencing to be more rapidly translated into cures for patients.