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Ashley Talamo, Publisher: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more. (video)

Diabetes costs are rising at a baffling rate... costs just increase.

Here are some notable trends

• Costs rose 150 percent for six popular, brand-name diabetes drugs in the past five years. Two of these drugs rose in price more than 250 percent.
• In 2012, the cost of treating diabetes was $245 billion.
• The spend on insulin and other diabetes medications is projected to rise 18.3 percent over the next three years – a rate that’s 60 times greater than the income growth rate of 0.3 percent across all households.

Many pharmacists dedicate themselves to improving the health of their patients and communities, but some answer an additional call: to provide their skills and knowledge in service to the military.

Few individuals can offer as unique a perspective on the evolving role of pharmacy technicians as Scott A. Meyers,RPh....is a member and the former chair of the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board Board of Governors, positions that have enabled him to oversee and bear witness to a number of changes in the technician profession.

AmerisourceBergen Corp. has launched the AmerisourceBergen Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization that… focuses on health and wellness initiatives that improve patient outcomes, including pharmaceutical accessibility programs, pharmaceutical adherence programs and health improvement research…. support for K-12 education, nursing programs, pharmacy programs and needs-based scholarships for youth...

Dr. John Halamka … sound the alarm on medical device threats in the wake of the FDA late last week issuing its first cybersecurity warning about a specific medical device…urged healthcare facilities to stop using Hospira's Symbiq Infusion System, a common device for dispensing fluids/drugs to patients…the devices could be accessed via a hospital network and rejiggered to mess up a patient's dosage….this will be the first of many advisories...involving medical device vulnerabilities.

When a veterinarian prescribes a medication, that prescription is often filled at a local community pharmacy….community pharmacists have little formal training in this area….It is difficult to know how to treat veterinary "patients" when different species and breeds can have vastly different responses to a treatment….

..realities of having children is that it is very likely you will also have pets…with pets come responsibilities…such as...taking your cat to the veterinarian…my vet provides access to a health information web portal for my pets,…it was not until the recent release of proposed revisions to Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements…that I realized perhaps web portal designers for human electronic health records could learn a thing or two from what I know is already available for pets...

Boston Medical Center has received a $1.3 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to support a demonstration project of pharmacy-based naloxone rescue kits to help reduce opioid addiction and overdose death in two New England States: Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The study will be conducted in partnership with Rhode Island Hospital.., CVS Health, which has pharmacies throughout the U.S., and several local community pharmacies…including...Eaton Apothecary.

Pharmacies have enormous potential to expand the reach and impact of critical public health interventions, just as we have seen happen with pharmacy access to clean syringes and adult immunizations...how do we do that with naloxone rescue kits?

Allergan Plc’s Actavis unit got a subpoena from the U.S. Justice Department seeking information on the marketing and prices of its generic drugs, becoming the biggest company yet to draw scrutiny in the government’s widening antitrust probe of the industry….subpoena also sought information about communications with competitors regarding the products,...