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Robert Sztar is the founder of Pharmactive and has developed a unique 4-step method of ‘Transpharmation’ which covers:

1. Education – I teach you the purpose of the currently available technologies.
2. Discovery – I help pharmacy owners to discover processes in their business which can be aided or automated by technology
3. Partnership – I introduce pharmacy owners to the right technology partners who will help them to plan, implement, train and maintain their products in their pharmacy.
4. Optimisation – I help you review the solutions implemented to ensure that the original objectives have been delivered upon, and discussing areas of potential improvement.  (podcast 24:29 min)

The imminent chain-wide arrival of digital receipts was first unveiled on Friday evening on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live, in a surprise appearance featuring CVS Pharmacy President Helena Foulkes. The show acknowledged the...feedback shared by millions of customers – including host Jimmy Kimmel himself, who has put CVS Pharmacy receipts and ExtraCare Rewards in the spotlight several times in the past...We are excited to roll out the much-anticipated launch of digital receipts. We heard loud and clear that while our customers love receiving coupons and special offers, many wanted a paperless option...This feature lets our customers continue to make personalized choices as to how they engage with us, and will let our members choose to say 'So long!' to the long paper receipts at check-out...

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Demonstrating the efficacy, safety and differential benefit of a new drug relies on collecting and analyzing enormous amounts of data generated in a clinical trial. Yet this process of extracting knowledge from data is often the source of many inefficiencies...We recently spoke with Dimitris Agrafiotis, PhD, Vice President and Chief Data Officer at Covance, to hear his thoughts on how informatics has affected drug development and will continue to transform the pharmaceutical industry.

• Why is informatics important in a global context?
• How does informatics support the conduct of efficient clinical trials?
• What role can informatics play in data management, analysis and integration in a clinical trial?
• How is informatics currently being employed to improve clinical trial performance?
• What role does informatics play in increasing patient safety?

The implant promises to treat opioid addiction without the hassle of a daily pill. And the company marketing the drug is so confident it’ll work, it’s planning to offer insurers a twist on a money-back guarantee: If the new device doesn’t save them money, they’ll get a refund...The implant, branded as Probuphine, relies on four tiny rods implanted under the skin to dispense the drug buprenorphine for six months at a time. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to decide on Friday whether to approve it...Braeburn Pharmaceuticals...has commercial rights to the implant...plans to price the implant "competitively" with other injectable drugs for neuropsychological conditions…"We are going to put our money where our mouth is," said Braeburn CEO Behshad Sheldon. "We believe that when you guarantee compliance with a medicine, it is going to save money in the long run."...The FDA rejected the implant the first time it came before the agency in 2013, requesting more data demonstrating its efficacy.

Under instructions from U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, economist Jim O’Neill has spent the last two years looking into the problem of drug-resistant infections—bacteria and other microbes that have become impervious to antibiotics. In that time, he estimates that a million people have died from such infections. By 2050, he thinks that ten million will die every year...The problem of drug-resistant microbes isn’t just about biology and chemistry; it’s an economic problem at heart, a catastrophic and long-bubbling mismatch between supply and demand. It’s the result of the many incentives for misusing our drugs, and the dearth of incentives for developing new ones...The scope of that problem is clear in O’Neill’s final report...resistance is not futile...O’Neill’s report includes ten steps to avert the crisis.

1. improve sanitation
2. global surveillance network
3. reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics in agriculture
4. better, faster, cheaper diagnostic tools
5. public-awareness campaign
6. promoting effective alternatives like vaccines
7. improve the numbers, pay and recognition of people working in infectious disease.
8. market-entry rewards
9. global innovation fund for early-stage research
10. build a global coalition

Two recently released reports from the University of Nevada School of Medicine say Nevada has remained near the bottom of many health care rankings partly because of population growth...The 2016 editions of Physician Workforce in Nevada and Health Workforce Supply in Nevada...offer insight into the state’s health care workforce, including what researchers say is the importance of education and training opportunities in meeting the state’s health care needs...Nevada falls well below the national rates of medical doctors per 100,000 members of the population and doctors in patient care per 100,000 population...Nevada has seen increases in the number of health care practitioners in many fields, but that growth isn’t reflected in per capita numbers because of the state’s growth...Per capita, Nevada ranks 48th in the nation in physicians and 50th in primary care physicians...Trying to keep up with the demand is a real challenge, so that’s part of the issue...Another part of the issue is that in order to educate the health care workers of the future, you have to have clerkships and internships for them in the state....

Israeli 3D printer firm Nano Dimension has successfully lab-tested a 3D bioprinter for stem cells, paving the way for the potential printing of large tissues and organs...While 3D printers are used already to create stem cells for research, Nano Dimension said the trial, conducted with Israeli biotech firm Accellta Ltd, showed its adapted printer could make large volumes of high resolution cells quickly...3D bioprinting enabled by the two companies' technologies, means that Nano Dimension and Accellta have the potential to accelerate high fidelity and high viability manufacturing of living cellular products...Accellta's technology can deliver large quantities of high quality cells which can be an enabler for printing even large and complex tissues and organs...

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network.

The digital start-up Capsule, which opens for business...in New York City, is looking to compete in the already crowded Big Apple pharmacy market by focusing on home delivery of prescription drugs...At the same time, Capsule is eschewing selling customers candy, soda, shampoo, greeting cards and other nonpharmaceutical items...Capsule aims to solve what its executives call the "existing pain points" of conventional, bricks-and-mortar pharmacies: long wait times to get prescriptions filled; having to return to the store because a drug is out of stock; uncertainty about how much a drug will cost a patient; and getting questions answered about drugs...Instead of walking into a store, most of the start-up's customers will get their medications hand-delivered by couriers dispatched throughout the city — with the temporary exception of Staten Island — via bicycle, buses and subways, and by foot, after their doctors file the prescription electronically...To build its business, Capsule will rely on consumer and doctor awareness. Patients can request the service, or doctors can recommend it...We think eliminating folks going into the store is one way of creating a better experience or energy...Capsule is launching its new way of running a pharmacy in New York City...This would certainly make sense in a number of other markets across the country, if not most everywhere...