Author: Peter

Leading up to NACDS Total Store Expo, Drug Store News had an opportunity to sit down with Tom O’Donnell, VP federal government affairs at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, to discuss pharmacist provider status and the latest pro-pharmacy legislative initiatives in the U.S. House and Senate.

Banner Health,..has expanded rapidly through acquisitions, is seeing its expenses outpace the additional revenue…Banner took over operations of the University of Arizona Health Network in February,…about $1 billion in funding and capital commitments… the short term, costs are rising. Banner reported an operating surplus of $107.6 million on $3.4 billion in revenue for the first half of the year…operating margin was 3.2%, compared with the prior year period's 7% margin...

A telehealth program that engages patients before and after their hip and knee replacement procedures not only made those patients feel better about the experience and their providers, but reduced length of stay and improved post-discharge responses… VOX Telehealth… attribute… improvement to the fact that patients are more prepared for the process, so there are fewer complications or concerns that would merit a longer stay of(or) transfer to another facility...

Danish drugmaker, Lundbeck has announced plans to slash 1,000 jobs as part of a massive restructuring…to save 3bn Danish Krone ($444m) in costs…and cutting early pipelines ..unnamed early-stage drug programs, and focus on existing products Abilify Maintena, (aripiprazole), Brintellix (vortioxetine), Northera (droxidopa), Onfi (clobazam), and Rexulti (brexpiprazole)… also plans to expand its new business service center in Krakow,Poland…restructure operations at its headquarters in Valby, Denmark

researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found that Florida’s legislative efforts to curb opioid abuse seem to be having their desired effect… statistically significant drops in the amount of opioids being prescribed and the volume in the state… opioid prescriptions dropped about 1.4%, opioid volume fell 2.4% and there was a 5.6% decrease in the morphine milligram equivalent per transaction.

Despite digital health's record breaking…growth last year – more recent reports showing it hasn't slowed down…more than half of all digital health startups are likely to fail..those fledgling companies that raked in a record $4.1 billion for 2014. Rather than discard the investment…in getting sputtering start-ups off the ground, it often makes sense for healthcare stakeholders to acquire them, salvage their best people and technologies…Many digital start-ups that are dying or in danger of failure have developed solutions that can help traditional and non-traditional healthcare companies achieve their goals..

Jessica Kerr, PharmD, CDE, and assistant department chair at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville discusses counseling points for patients taking oral non-insulin diabetes medication (video)

New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. has lost its second health IT leader amid an investigation into a multiyear, multimillion dollar installation of an electronic health-record system.Former Chief Technology Officer Paul Contino was terminated three weeks ago,.. In February, his boss, former Chief Information Officer Bert Robles, who had been managing the project, also was fired, …Two other administrators and seven consultants have also left the project,.. New York Post, citing unnamed sources, said the installation is off target by 18 months…

Big data and pharmaceutical tracking and authentication company TruMedicines… launched a 40-day Kickstarter campaign for a smartphone app that promotes medication safety…app will help stymy issues responsible for over a million deaths every year and billions of dollars in additional healthcare costs — counterfeit medication and adherence…inability to figure out whether a drug is legitimate or not was a problem that needed fixing...

Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy recently released its 2014 annual report on investigations and disciplinary actions against retail chain, independent community, and compounding pharmacies...regulators reported a "noticeable field presence" with an increase in investigative staff and greater interest in keeping tabs on sterile compounding pharmacies.