Posted by James
All of the Medicare bills that Congress seriously considered this past year—be they Republican; Democrat; or, in the case of the Senate, tripartisan (accounting for Independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont)—re-lied on pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies to one extent or another. Part of the reason why a Medicare drug bill did not pass was a growing discomfort, especially among Democrats, with certain aspects of the PBM model.
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Posted by James
A review of six years of hospital data regarding patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) shows that the use of aspirin, anti-platelets, and beta blockers has risen steadily in accordance with guidelines suggesting that treatment with these agents lowers mortality. An analysis of data from PharmScope Insights, a free hospital-pharmacy benchmarking program, shows the following trends: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by James
When the House and Senate take up a Medicare prescription drug bill this year, there is one thing you can be sure of: members of Congress will propose all sorts of amendments meant to rein in pharmaceutical expenditures—and not just for Medicare recipients. It happened when Medicare bills landed on both floors in 2002. It will happen again in 2003.
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Posted by James
Do you ever wonder why certain hospital committees get more done than others, or why a P&T committee in one institution seems to be on top of every important detail while others can’t seem to accomplish anything? Does one of your medication-safety programs seem to be going in reverse gear rather than making the progress you had anticipated? Perhaps help is at hand.
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Posted by James
Within the last two years, new therapies have been introduced to treat invasive fungal infections: caspofungin acetate (Cancidas®, Merck) and voriconazole (Vfend®, Pfizer). Caspofungin is the first in a new class of drugs called echinocandins that work by inhibiting synthesis of the fungal cell wall. Voriconazole is a new triazole antifungal medication indicated for the primary treatment of acute invasive aspergillosis and as salvage therapy for rare but serious fungal infections caused by the pathogens Scedosporium apiospermum and Fusarium species.
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Posted by James
Despite the obvious temptation, we didn’t hype our new Web site for months and months in advance the way that we would, let’s say, the upcoming P&T Society meeting in Chicago. The reason is very simple: we wanted to make sure that it was actually done first.
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Posted by James
Overview: The Five Factors to Consider
A ntibiotics comprise the single largest subset of medications on hospital formularies and constitute the group of drugs that undergo periodic revision. Various antibiotics might be added to hospital formularies while others are kept or deleted.
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