Editorial
Welcome to the May 2012 homepage edition of i2P-Information to Pharmacists. Rollo Manning has been having some time out having staples removed from the site of his open heart surgery.He is now at home recuperating in Darwin, having arrived home last Friday, beating a cold and hasty retreat from Canberra.We all wish him a speedy recovery and hopefully, he will be fit enough to contribute by next month.
This month, Pharmedia discusses the toll that is taken when someone complains about you to an authority without good cause. Well, the good news is that you can now take action to protect yourself if such a complaint is made, and that may even include action for defamation. Read about a recent case involving two doctors, with Mark Coleman drawing on personal experience to illustrate.
Columns
Loretta Marron BSc: Health Watch
Barry Urquhart: Marketing Focus
Harvey Mackay: Strategic Thinking
Mark Neuenschwander: I`ve been thinking about...Recent Comments
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Naturopathy and my Doctor.
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PDF version | Chris Wright |
Chris has spent many years in the pharmaceutical industry and is semi-retired. | |
To my pleasant surprise the family doctor offered a choice to address a painful problem highlighted by scans.
Acupuncture or an anti-inflammatory drug?
Acupuncture any day thank you, without the fries.
As it turns out, my doctor is not only an acupuncturist but a naturopath, as well.
This surprised me somewhat but I’m not sure why.
Should I have known?
If so, would the knowledge make a difference in the manner in which I present with an ailment?
The implications of doctors being naturopaths are positive.
An holistic approach to addressing a problem supported by a medical degree must give confidence to the patient.
Also, acupuncture is cheaper than a prescription.
As doctors waver between under and over prescribing depending on the bureaucratic whim of the day holistic solutions are constant.
Clearly doctors or pharmacists who practice naturopathy have a level of credibility nobody else can match.
The difference with the doc’s is of course is they have the ability to solve a problem and save a script.
It is not likely that a doctor or pharmacist will send a patient to the Andes on a donkey wearing SCUBA gear and carrying a box of lifesaving lamingtons, and of course the obligatory “remedies” costing thousands of $$$’s.
Harsh?
Yep, but an “alternative” solution was given to a desperate close friend a few short years ago that involved eating lamb but not beef and taking a plethora of questionable but expensive “remedies”.
No, the lamb did not save her, despite the claims of the highly recommended “naturopath” who practices in a particularly well-heeled suburb and has the local landed gentry exhorting his self-proclaimed special gift.
Therefore, it might be said we have a right to be suspicious of and in some cases angry with those claiming to be in possession of magic remedies unless a medical science degree is attached to the advice.
Acupuncture is 5,000 years old, if those claiming to be skilled at the art of holistic health had runs on the board like my doctor we’d all be in better shape.
Research Reports
Dr Richard Hallinan B Med FAChAM (RACP): X-Concord 2012 Seminar Summary - “Benzodiazepines and dependence”, with an emphasis on people on opioid pharmacotherapies | open full screen
Staff Researcher: Encouraging news for heart patientsPractice Development
Gerald Quigley: Don’t Give Up
Chris Foster: Seventeen Handy Tax Planning Tips for 2012
Kay Dunkley - BPharm, Grad Dip Hosp Pharm, Grad Dip Health Admin, MPS, MSHPA: Taking care of pharmacists’ health – what is it worth? | open full screen
Peter Sayers: The Climate Change in Evidence-based medicine
Neil Johnston: An Evidence-Based Conversation Between Ken Harvey, Gerald Quigley and Neil Johnston | open full screen
Neil Johnston: An Evidence-Based Conversation Between Ken Harvey, Gerald Quigley and Neil Johnston- Part 2 | open full screen
Kay Dunkley - BPharm, Grad Dip Hosp Pharm, Grad Dip Health Admin, MPS, MSHPA: Tax time – a donation to PSS is a gift to your profession and a deduction for you | open full screen
Information Technology
Neil Retallick: Good news for community pharmacy from the Minister of Agriculture | open full screen
Dr Ian Colclough: While doctors remain disempowered doctor shoppers needing help will die. | open full screen
Dr David More: Australian Health Information Technology Links to 30 April 2012Preventive Medicine
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Submitted by Loretta Marron on Thu, 24/06/2010 - 09:58.
Patients expect to get evidence-based medicine when they go to their pharmacist or doctor (who are both trained scientists) - they do not expect to get placebo. What will this doctor/naturopath offer next - homeopathy or magnetic therapy or perhaps other ‘energy medicine’ to boost your vital force while tuning into the “frequency of your organs”.
We are now in the golden age of Medicine and science. Acupuncture has had 5000 years to produce one robust clinical trial that it can act as an anti-inflammatory – I can't find it on Cochrane or PUBMED so where is it?
Submitted by Ian Carr on Wed, 23/06/2010 - 08:56.
Let me get this straight: quackery is OK if it is practised by someone who should know better ????
Acupuncture may be 5000 years old but so is the ancient art of bleeding a patient. Acupuncture, when tested, appears to be indistinguishable from placebo.
And as for that abused term "holistic", I find it is mostly used where the practitioners have little knowledge of any of the "specifics".
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