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"If you weren’t a pharmacist, what would you be doing?" I get tons of diverse responses from faces that light up when they talk about it…Pharmacists are in a great position to reinvent themselves because they have developed the following skills over time that are useful in many career fields:

1. Management skills
2. Finance skills
3. Mentoring skills
4. Multitasking and efficiency skills
5. Communication skills

10 best-selling brand-name drugs have generated $48.5 billion in sales this year through June 2015,…gross sales from the following 10 drugs comprise 43% of the nearly $112.5 billion in total drug sales generated by the 100 best-selling drugs..

1. Humira (Abbott) - $8.6 billion
2. Abilify (Otsuka) - $7.2 billion
3. Enbrel (Amgen) - $6.1 billion
4. Crestor (AstraZeneca) - $6.1 billion
5. Lantus Solostar (Sanofi-Aventis) - $5 billion
6. Sovaldi (Gilead Sciences) - $4.9 billion
7. Advair Diskus (GlaxoSmithKline) - $4.8 billion
8. Nexium (AstraZeneca) - $4.7 billion
9. Januvia (Merck) – $3.8 billion
10. Lyrica (Pfizer) - $3.4 billion

Watters Publishing has recently launched 'The Measly Virus', a book targeted at 4-8 year olds which aims to promote a positive message about vaccination to children, parents and guardians alike, highlighting the resilience and impact of a vaccine-preventable disease and the bravery required to protect oneself, and those most vulnerable among us…

Purdue Pharma is launching a new effort to prevent opioid abuse…announced its new Team Against Opioid Abuse website that’s meant to instruct people about how to reduce opioid abuse and misuse and inform about abuse-deterrent technologies….importance of preventing abuse of prescription drugs and outlines FDA guidelines on abuse-deterrent labeling…includes information on how to identify opioid formulations with abuse-deterrent properties for healthcare professionals…

Considering that a pharmacist’s mistake may cost a patient’s life, one class at Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy prepares pharmacy students for the gravity of their actions…. Foundations of Pharmacy course for incoming students has included a mock trial… Begin imagining yourselves in the chair as the defendant in the case, a pharmacist who has practiced for some time [and who] made an error….

Developing countries like China, Brazil and India will drive nearly half of the growth in drug spending in the near future…pharmerging nations–developing countries…are expected to see the fastest growth in total drug spending over the next three years, making them attractive targets for drug makers…beware…reliance on lower-cost generics will make it a tricky opportunity to play...

Pharmacy is one of the foundational pillars of modern medicine,..community pharmacy is now at a crossroads…revenues are capped, competition is more intense and pharmacies are increasingly expected to play a stronger role in managing chronic conditions…The debate on the sustainability of community pharmacy is not a new one… Five forces will profoundly shape the future of community pharmacy…

1. Squeeze on health care budgets
2. Intensifying competition
3. Transformation of the supply chain
4. Emergence of new alternative channels
5. Demand for convenience and expertise

To survive…consider these two strategies:

1. Improve efficiency of supply
2. Become the first port of call in the health care system

..technician’s role on the pharmacy team continues to evolve, many current and future techs have turned to their local community colleges for training…programs help students cultivate the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the changing pharmacy environment, as well as prepare them to take the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam…meet the increasing demand for formally trained technicians, the following 5 schools have announced the launch or reaccreditation of technician training programs...

• East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee
• Southern Regional Technical College in Thomasville, Georgia
• East Central Community College Workforce Development Center in Decatur, Mississippi
• Spoon River College Outreach Center in Macomb, Illinois
• Hagerstown Community College in Hagerstown, Maryland

More than half unhappy with usability…nearly 20 percent of community hospitals polled for a recent report are "actively looking to replace" their electronic health record vendors…Smaller hospitals are being tasked with more physician documentation for MU, and the extra time required, disrupted workflows and frustrating EHR functionality means many providers' patience is wearing thin…

…far from building an artificial organ, a breakthrough system being developed with the help of two alums from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is bringing the diabetic community closer to one than ever before…Tomas Walker and Aimee Jose, who graduated…from...nursing school, are each playing a role in the creation of a so-called artificial pancreas system,..works like this: Three separate components with tiny needles are attached to the wearer's abdomen. The first two are pumps — one is filled with the insulin hormone, and the second is filled with another hormone called glucagon…third is a continuous glucose monitor,.. it tells the pumps how frequently they should secrete hormones into the body to regulate blood sugar levels.