Approximately two million people in Quebec do not have a family physician, thus are finding it very difficult to not only be prescribed with medication, but receive a proper diagnosis as well.

The proposed changes will allow pharmacists in Quebec to:

• Change a prescription when necessary based on the patient’s weight and/or allergies
• Renew and/or extend prescriptions based on specific patient criteria
• Write prescriptions for “simple” health problems like allergies or cold sores
• Order certain lab tests
• Educate patients on how to administer certain medications, such as asthma inhalers

Are doctors too busy to properly treat patients?

Diane Lamarre, the president of the Quebec Order of Pharmacists, has publicly stated that doctors are too overworked to treat patients in a timely fashion, and as of right now the average wait time in Quebec’s emergency rooms could take as long as 17 hours.

In a 2010 survey it was discovered that 92% of participants believed that pharmacists should be allowed to renew or “temporarily extend” a patient’s prescription, while 91% stated that they trust pharmacists to deal with their health and medical problems.

But pharmacists who are behind this proposal say it isn’t so much about overpowering the role of a doctor, but ultimately to help ease overcrowding in hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices.  (Some other provinces in Canada already allow pharmacists to refill prescriptions, prescribe certain drugs, an administer vaccines as well).  

Bio: Alexis Bonari is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching grants for Hispanic students as well as grants for students with disabilities. Whenever this WAHM gets some free time she enjoys doing yoga, cooking with the freshest organic in-season fare, and practicing the art of coupon clipping.

In microsurgery, the success of the operation depends largely on identifying details.

For example, the surgeon needs a high magnification factor. A moment later, a wide field of view can be necessary to provide an overview of the field of operation. Or the procedure requires a quick change of the working distance or the working position.

Leica Microsystems’ Headmounted Microscopy embodies an entirely new way of thinking: miniaturizing high-end surgical microscopes and combining them with the versatility and ergonomics of headmounted systems such as loupes.

A Safer Alternative to Metal Stents

The problem with metal stents in the past has been its incompatibility with the patient’s body.  Metal is a foreign object in the human body, generally triggering an immune response that causes scar tissue to collect over the metal stent.  This often causes clots to form where the stent has damaged the arterial wall.  Since stents are inserted to unblock clogged arteries, the procedure has long been a mere short-term solution to a longer-lasting, costly, and painful condition.  Patients must take dual antiplatelet therapy after the insertion of stents, as well as take clopidogrel for one year and aspirin ad infinitum.

ABSORB stents, however, dissolve within two years—long enough to leave the initially clogged artery clear and restore blood flow yet brief enough to prevent further clot formation.  They are made of polylactide, a scientifically-backed biocompatible material.  Polylactide can be found in many medical implants, including resorbable sutures.  They are, as per European approval through ABSORB clinical trials and supporting data, the perfect candidate for treating clogged epicardial coronary arteries.  Epicardial coronary arteries are the narrow arteries on the surface of the heart often affected by atherosclerosis, leading to clotting adnt hus angina or a heart attack.)

European Approval

“Abbot’s ABSORB has the potential to change the way patients with coronary artery disease are treated,” lauds Patrick W. Serruys, M.D., Ph.D., professor of interventional cardiology at the Thoraxcentre, Erasmus University Hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.  “It does what no other drug eluting coronary device has been able to do before; completely dissolve and potentially restore natural vessel function in a way not possible with permanent metallic implants.”

With no metallic residue, the patient’s vessel may eventually move, flex, and pulsate like a healthy vessel.  With such vascular restoration therapy (VRT), there may be a decreased need for anti-platelet therapy.

Globalization of ABSORB

Abbot claims that ABSORB has revolutionary potential for effective treatment and positive therapeutic outcomes.  “Receiving CE Mark is a significant milestone on the path to providing patients with new treatment options for coronary artery disease.”

Abbot anticipates ABSORB’s wide availability in Europe by the end of 2012.  A global trial involving 100 healthcare centers in Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, and Latin America is in the works.

Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online degrees. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

One new way that scientists are starting to understand the science of Alzheimer’s includes brain plaques. These are the clumps and strands of protein that form when the brain cells die. Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have begun to use newly discovered tracers to pinpoint genetic variations in the development of brain plaque. These variations may help doctors indentify which drugs will work better on Alzheimer’s patients with a certain genetic makeup. 

Also, as scientists continue to make sense of the complicated chemistry of the Alzheimer’s brain, they have identified the following forms of prevention to help ensure that this devastating disease does not affect more than the current 5.3 million Americans with the disease.

Forms of prevention identified at the conference include:

Vitamin D: Another important way to help protect against late life dementia may be to get adequate levels of Vitamin D. According to an English study, which examined 3,000+ adults age 65 and older, individuals with low levels of Vitamin D may have their logic, attention and memory affected. When given a memory test, the study found that people who were severely deficient in the vitamin did four times worse than those who had adequate levels of the vitamin.

Adequate exercise: Studies also show that physical activity may have a hand in reducing the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s in men. A Harvard University study showed that older men who worked out regularly, on a moderate to heavy level, lowered their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s by 40 percent. Therefore, even people as old as age 80 may lower their chances of getting dementia through moderate exercise.

Drinking Tea: According to a study that followed 4,800 men and women over age 65 for 14 years, drinking tea could cut the risk of dementia by almost a third. Compared to non-tea drinkers, people who regularly drank tea had a lower decline in their cognitive abilities. Researchers don’t believe that caffeine is related to the benefit, since coffee has twice as much caffeine as tea – and did not produce a similar benefit.

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Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She writes for the Online Schools Site, where recently she’s been researching different online pharmacist degrees and blogging about student life. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Medical errors happen more often than we realize they do; the numbers are staggering – according to information from the Institute of Medicine, between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths and around 1,000,000 injuries occur in the U.S every year due to medical errors. Most of them are preventable, especially prescription errors that result in the wrong medication or the wrong dosage being given to patients. Prescription errors happen for a variety of reasons, such pharmacist error, assistant error and oftentimes patient error. Physicians wanting to help others who are allowed to write prescriptions (like physician assistants and a few nurse practitioners) suggest the following ways to reduce all variety of errors by:

1. Taking extra care to write the prescriptions in a readable manner.
2. Using electronic prescription entry devices or preprinted prescriptions.
3. Writing prescriptions without using short forms, abbreviations or codes for the names of drugs so that pharmacist confusion or assumption does not lead to errors.
4. Setting policies in place where nurses or assistants check the prescription for errors before passing it on to the patient.
5. Ensuring that the patient has understood the prescription and knows when, how, and for how long to take the drugs.
6. Prescribing small doses of drugs that could be lethal if taken in large quantities and monitoring their usage.
7. Marking your name clearly on prescription pads that have the names of multiple physicians so that it is clearly visible and pharmacists know who to call when they need clarification.
8. Providing simplified dosage instructions understandable to the patient and pharmacist.
9. Using technology that allows you to send prescriptions directly to the pharmacist so that handwriting errors are prevented.
10. Adding additional information that is useful to the patient – like things to avoid doing while on certain drugs or why you have prescribed certain drugs. This prevents side-effects and misuse of drugs

A prescription is the most important aspect of medical care since it is based on the assessment of the patient’s condition and diagnosis of the illness, and is meant to effect the cure or provide therapeutic benefits. So when prescription errors occur, the very purpose of medical treatment is negated.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Rachel Davis, she writes on the topic of Radiology degree. She welcomes your comments  below.

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