Industry Spotlight: National Hospital & Health-System Pharmacy Week is October 22nd -28th, 2006

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) sponsors this week-long celebration during American Pharmacists Month. The week focuses on the important contributions made by pharmacists and technicians to promote the safety and well-being of patients in our nation's health care institutions.

The MEDITECH Community Bulletin will use the occasion of National Hospital & Health-System Pharmacy Week, October 22-28, 2006, to underscore the importance of the role which pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play as members of multidisciplinary patient-care teams. Not only do they play a critical role in preventing medication errors and advising providers on the best drug choices, but hospital and health-system pharmacists have been able to take on enhanced patient-care roles because of the deployment of new technologies like dispensing robots, medication label bar coding, and advanced clinical information systems which provide instant access to both drug and patient data.

Pharmacists are experts on the thousands of medications available today, how each one works in the body, and the ways to use each one safely and effectively. Pharmacists who graduate today receive six years of education focused on medication therapy, and many pharmacists practicing in hospitals and health systems also complete post-graduate residency programs. They advise doctors and nurses on the best medications and monitor every patient’s medication therapy and provide quality checks to detect and prevent harmful drug interactions, reactions, or mistakes.

Like any knowledge-intensive field these days, pharmacy professionals are greatly impacted by the explosive growth of computers. Pharmacy Informatics is a field that combines drug information, patient data and computer expertise. But, how do you define Pharmacy Informatics? Well, it depends upon who you ask ... below are some different, but very similar definitions.

• Pharmacy informatics (PIX), also referred to as pharmacoinformatics, is the application of computers to the storage, retrieval and analysis of drug information. PIX systems help the pharmacist manage information including but not limited to medical insurance records of patients, drug interaction data, as well as prescription data. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy_informatics)
  
  
• Informatics can be defined as that discipline that assists in the translation of raw data into actionable knowledge, i.e., something that could be used, and the dissemination of that knowledge to other individuals including health care professionals and consumers. Therefore, pharmacy informatics can be defined as that subspecialty of informatics which is applied directly to pharmaceutical care. (http://www.pharmacyinformatics.org)
  
  
• Pharmacy Informatics is an emerging field of study that combines the uses of information technology with the practice of pharmacy. (http://www.pharmacyinformatics.com)

Why is Informatics Important to Pharmacy?
* The following information is excerpted from the PharmacyInformatics.com web site. *

“Informatics is rapidly becoming an important field in our society. When is the last time you typed in 'informatics' into a search engine? Today, you would receive between 40,000 and 50,000 hits depending on the search engine you use. And while the aspects of informatics are endless, a relatively small number of people truly understand its meaning. Informatics is still in its beginning stages. It is a result of our 'age of information' and the shear volumes of endless stacks of data that have seemed to appear in the past decade. New companies have risen from this growing paper-trail quagmire in an effort to curb the data explosion. New data storage processes and storage units have been created in response. But, the problem still remains. How do you effectively manage this data?”

“Pharmacists are not immune to the problem either. Growing numbers of new prescription and OTC medications, patient records, and newer FDA approved indications have made the daunting task of medication familiarity even more difficult. A pharmacist can't be expected to know every medication, its therapeutic usage, side effects, drug interactions, and dosage forms. Therefore, we must rely on these new computer systems and algorithms to manage our knowledge base and extend our capabilities. However, because the programs that are created to manage this information aren't created by Pharmacists, more problems continue to surface. How many disgruntled pharmacists have complained about the lack of usefulness of a particular program? How many times have you sat at a system and wondered why you couldn't complete a task the way you wanted to?”

“Some Pharmacists complain that the implementation of some new computer system causes more work. But, how can this be? The very nature of the system should be to reduce paperwork and streamline the flow of information to and from the Pharmacist. The answer, while not simple or singular in nature, lies in the original study and design of the system. Had the system been designed, ground up, with the Pharmacist in mind, and created by a Pharmacist, then would the system work more efficiently? There is a particular dearth of data that would support the answer to this question, but logic would tell us that water mixes with water much better than oil. Yet, we do not see Pharmacist racing out to get a second degree in computers. Why? Most likely because 5-6 years of study are needed to become a Pharmacist and another 4-5 years to become a computer engineer.”

Are you a Pharmacy Informatics Specialist?

As a Pharmacy Informatics Specialist, you perform a very important role. The demand for such professionals is ever-increasing as healthcare providers recognize the need for a clinical background in the development, use, and management of information systems. Having first-hand experience in the dispensing of pharmaceuticals is becoming even more important as providers are starting to implement some of the more advanced clinical applications available in the market today.

There are several career options available to Pharmacy Informatics Specialists today. Sometimes the positions reside in the Pharmacy; other times they report into the Information Systems/Technology department. The position titles may vary from one organization to the next, but the roles generally fall into the following categories:

• Systems / Applications Analyst: Works for a healthcare provider (hospital, medical practice, or clinic); performs analysis, implementation, development, user training, and support of a specific (or multiple) vendor application software products.
  
  
• Implementation Specialist: Works for a healthcare software/technology vendor or a consulting firm; performs analysis, implementation, development, and user training of a specific (or multiple) products for their customers. Such positions generally involve extensive travel to customer sites, nationally or regionally.
  
  
• Project Manager: Works for a healthcare provider, vendor, or consulting firm; performs project planning, management, delivery, and oversight of healthcare software/technology initiatives.
  
  
• Product Manager: Works for a healthcare software/technology vendor; provides input to the full product life cycle including the design, development, sales, marketing, and delivery of product(s). Works closely with both internal teams and customers.

Regardless of the path you choose, we’ll be there with you.

Systems Personnel is a professional search firm specializing in Healthcare Management and Information Technology. All of our clients need Pharmacy Informatics professionals at one time or another. If you’d like to keep your career options open, then please let us know. Even if we don’t have an immediate opportunity for you, we’d be happy to discuss your background, interests, and career options in order to consider you for future opportunities. Please feel free to call us at 413-258-4511 or email us . Your personal privacy is guaranteed!

We’d like to thank you for all that you do and wish you a happy National Pharmacy Week!