Posts tagged as:

drug Information

Transient ischaemic attack– rapid assessment and treatment

by Robbo on 27/01/2010

The first of the RGH E-Bulletins for 2010 is now out.

Recent evidence shows that the maximum risk is within the first few days after a TIA. One study has shown that for a period of 90 days after a TIA, the risk of stroke is 10.5%, with half of these patients suffering stroke within 48 hours.

Rapid initiation of treatment leads to better outcomes. Interaction

The EXPRESS observational study of specialist outpatient TIA management demonstrated that early pharmacotherapy (reducing the median delay to first prescription from 20 days to 1 day) as part of urgent assessment and treatment was associated with a significant lowering of the risk of recurrent stroke at 90 days from 10.3% to 2.1%.

Patients with TIA and associated high -grade carotid stenoses receiving early surgical intervention within two weeks have better secondary stroke prevention outcomes than those receiving later surgery.

Download (PDF, 8.01KB)

Tagged as: aboriginal, anticoagulation, drug Information, EXPRESS, ischemia, RGH E-bulletin, stroke, TIA, transient ischaemic attack

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Practical Pharmacy: Adherence

by Robbo on 16/12/2009

I have mentioned the Practical Pharmacy newsletter produced by Health Action International Africa previously.

HAI

This issue looks at adherence from a number of positions including the factors that contribute to poor adherence, ways for children to take medicine and tailoring dosage regimes.

Adherence: The degree to which patients follow medical advice and take medicines as directed. Adherence depends not only on patient’s acceptance of information about the health threat itself but also on the practioner’s ability to persuade the patient that the treatment is worthwhile and on the patient’s perception of the practitioner’s credibility, empathy, interest and concern. (WHO/MSF)

Although based on African experiences many of the examples and points made are pertinent in Australia’s ‘fourth world’, remote indigenous Australia. The current issue is below or it can also back issues can be found here

Download (PDF, 1.29MB)

Tagged as: adherence, drug Information, HAI, pharmacy, Practical Pharmacy

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Prasugrel

by Robbo on 12/10/2009

Interaction

Prasugrel (Effient®) is the latest addition to the thienopyridine class of medications (e.g. clopidogrel, ticlopidine). This drug is an irreversible antagonist of P2Y12 ADP receptor on platelets; thereby inhibiting platelet activation and aggregation.

Currently, when co-administered with aspirin, prasugrel has an approved indication in Australia for prevention of atherothrombotic events in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), defined as moderate to high risk unstable angina, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarct (STEMI) or non-STEMI, who are to undergo percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Download the complete bulletin: Prasugrel (85) Volume 35 (12): October 12, 2009

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Tagged as: drug Information, Prasugrel, RGH E-bulletin

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Practical Pharmacy Newsletter

by Robbo on 02/09/2009

Way back in 1997 I first came into contact with the Practical Pharmacy newsletter. The October -December issue was titled “Drug Information for Health Workers: Giving Out Medications”. The next I heard of it was in 2008 with the new title “Practical Pharmacy for Developing Countries” with an issue focusing on Tuberculosis.

Then nothing. I wondered what happened to it. I had forgotten who produced it. However the latest edition, Practical Pharmacy - Antiseptics and Disinfectants (233) (1MB PDF) arrived in my email today and I thought I should give it a plug.

HAI

Hopefully it will be a quarterly publication produced by Health Action International Africa and a number of partners. Fifteen issues were produced between 1996 and 2000 with a circulation of 4000. Unfortunately they could not keep publishing the newsletter and it lay dormant until 1996.

… years have passed since the last edition of Practical Pharmacy. However, the needs it addressed still exist. Many health workers in developing countries still have no specific training in pharmacy and have no information to help them in their day to day work. They need tools and resources to help them manage medicine supplies, to prescribe medicines appropriately and to help their patients understand how to use medicines appropriately.

More than half of all medicines are prescribed, dispensed or sold inappropriately, and half of all patients fail to take them correctly. The over-use, under-use or misuse of medicines results in wastage of scarce resources, especially in developing countries. In addition, using medicines improperly increases the risk of people falling sick and dying of illness, as well as resistance of disease-causing microbes to available treatments.

Early editions focused on the basic but essential skills for medicine management in a remote or under resourced health centre setting such as storage and stock control of medications. Newer editions will have a more patient centred focus.
You can subscribe by emailing practicalpharmacy@gmail.com

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Tagged as: antiseptics, disinfectants, drug Information, HAI, pharmacy, Practical Pharmacy

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