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NVSHP would like to welcome all Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Students and other Health Professionals to the Annual Meeting on Saturday, October 3rd, at the JA Nugget Casino in Sparks Nevada…There will be 4 hours of CE available and an exhibit showcase. Breakfast and lunch will be provided. We look forward to seeing you there!

• PPMI: Advancing Pharmacy Practice (Steve Nelson)
• Nevada Law CE (Nevada State Board of Pharmacy Staff)
• Updates on Biologic Therapy for Plaque Psoriasis (Stephen Lee)
• Naloxone Rescue 101 (Danielle Finn, Kelly Krieger, Heather Mooney)

California pharmacists could soon participate in dispensing lethal medications to terminally ill patients, pending Gov. Brown’s review of the state’s End of Life Option Act…"It will be critical for pharmacists to be highly engaged with patients, their physicians, and caregivers in discussions about end-of-life considerations,"…"As a member of the health care team and expert in medication use, pharmacists may be placed in situations that require their expertise and should be conversant in the medication-related aspects of these choices, regardless of whether they choose to actively participate in end-of-life actions or not."

Heather Bonome, PharmD, director of Pharmacy Segment at URAC, discusses the standards that illustrate quality in specialty pharmacy. (video)

Walgreens is providing up to $15 million worth of free flu shot vouchers through its collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services, in an effort to improve immunization rates among uninsured and underinsured…the voucher initiative has been instrumental in helping to protect more people from the flu each season,… providing access to flu shots at no cost for those who are eligible, we can make a significant impact by protecting more people throughout the flu season…

GSK is selling a French R&D site (Les Ulis) as part of a global restructuring move but says it will continue growing its manufacturing presence in the country… GSK is consolidating its R&D network by concentrating its operations into two global centres – Philadelphia in the US and Stevenage in the UK – that will be supported by a number of smaller ‘satellite’ sites.

…abbreviations "TPA" and "t-PA" are causing medication mix-ups between alteplase (Activase) and tenecteplase (TNKase)….This confusion is a significant contributing factor to wrong drug errors between Activase and TNKase, according to the FDA and Institute for Safe Medication Practices… To avoid this, ISMP recommends removing the abbreviations from all standardized order sets, electronic order entry screens, and treatment protocols, and referring to the medications by their brand names, generic names, or both in all verbal and written communication.

CEO, CFO step down amid financial mess at NHS hospitals…rollout of a $300M Epic EHR implementation at Cambridge University Hospitals in the UK is making a bad financial situation worse, according to news reports from across the pond…"The introduction of the new computer system was troubled and difficult and I suspect that's contributed to their problems, but I think the basic responsibility for this is the [financial] pressure that's been put on the National Health Service by the government. The Conservatives promised extra for the health service - we haven't seen it."

Increasing QbD (Quality by Design) needs and a range of technical service centres have driven up the prices of Evonik’s drug delivery excipient portfolio,…Oral dose pharmaceutical excipients and polymers used for depot formulations and bioresorbable implants, are increasing in price…price changes are necessary to "maintain the high level of service and quality" of the excipients, The price hike affects…polymers used to encapsulate and control the release of small molecule APIs, peptides and proteins. Polymers falling under Evonik’s Resomer brand – used in medical implants and devices – will also be affected.

Independent pharmacies will want to consider updating their credit card processing terminals to accept EMV chip cards this fall…Named after their original developers (Europay, MasterCard, and Visa), EMV cards have a small, metallic square on the front of the card that serves as a microprocessor to store data securely, making the cards nearly impossible to counterfeit…starting October 1...the liability for credit card fraud will shift from banks to stores that are not EMV compliant…liability will shift to "whichever party is the least EMV-complaint in certain fraudulent transactions...

..first medical residency program at MountainView Hospital has received accreditation, which means as many as 40 doctors-in-training will be working at the Las Vegas facility in July.,, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education had approved MountainView's Internal Medicine Residency Program…."Southern Nevada has been deficient in graduate medical education opportunities,"…"Many of our medical students,..who are from Las Vegas, had to leave the state to get their training…this will be a chance for those doctors to come back to Southern Nevada to start their training or continue their training and stay here and practice medicine.