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California women who have long had to schedule a doctor’s appointment for a birth control prescription will be able to go straight to the pharmacy for the contraception… state law, passed in 2013 with plans to be implemented in October, gives licensed pharmacists authorization to prescribe self-administered hormonal contraceptives,...SB 493, also allows pharmacists to prescribe nicotine replacement products,…travel medication, and gives pharmacists status as health care providers.

..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...

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.

Florida was considered the epicenter for the trafficking of illegal prescription narcotics. The DEA and local law enforcement shut down more than 250 so-called “pill mills” — clinics where doctors could sell narcotics directly to people for cash. Now Florida doctors can no longer dispense narcotics directly to patients...

While the breach did not result in substantial harm...it highlighted the susceptibility of FDA’s network to attacks and raised questions about the adequacy of FDA’s information security program…The vulnerability of information collected and maintained by the agency is of prime importance to many in the pharma and biotech industries because FDA has the legal obligation to protect companies’ trade secrets and confidential commercial information.

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.

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,...

…US regulator awards iclaprim expedited QIDP (fast-track qualified infectious disease product) status, a former FDA antibiotics expert says the scheme boosts antibiotics without enough evidence for efficacy…This drug should not be developed further…the drug industry is forgetting past lessons about what constitutes good evidence…

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?

Reno Office of Veterans Benefits, administrators gave an update on their service to veterans… "The goal for claims process, the average time, a veteran would wait is 125 days…Our veterans in Nevada wait an average of 119 days,"…new technology, methods, and a can-do attitude by staff have made all the difference…more than 95% of first-time veteran enrollees can get an appointment the same day,...New clinics have opened …more physicians and others have been put on staff…. We …have a dedicated strategic planning effort to get care closer, out in the community,…