Analysis
News
Patients phone drone for their medicinal needs
HEATHER SAXENA A MAJOR pharmacy chain plans to use drones to fly over-the-counter medications and toiletries to patients’ homes.
Chemist Warehouse has teamed with Google for a trial in Royalla, a small community on the NSW – ACT border, where customers will be able to order from a list of more than 100 products via an app.
Following the order being placed, a drone will be dispatched and hover over a Chemist Warehouse trailer, based in Royalla. A hook will then be lowered from the drone so a staff member can attach medications.
The drone, which has a payload capacity of 1kg, will then deliver the order to the customer, most likely dropping it in their backyards.
“ In terms of experience, efficiency and ease for the customer journey,
Underbellies exposed in codeine menace
Analysis
Paul Smith
THE Pharmacy Guild of Australia’ s political battle to ensure that codeine remains an over the counter drug is ongoing. It is difficult not to admire the guild’ s successes, even if the sentiment doesn’ t extend to actual respect.
When measured against the struggles for effective advocacy on behalf of general practice, you can be left a little breathless by how quickly the guild makes political wheels spin.
We revealed back in August that the guild had hired Santo Santoro, a former federal minister, as a parliamentary lobbyist.
While the guild never said what his mission actually was, within months of his coming on-board, a letter is signed by seven state and territory health ministers asking their federal counterpart not to abandon people in agonising pain when the TGA upschedules codeine to prescription only next year.
There is quite a long list of experts who have warned that the guild’ s attempts to bypass the TGA is a menace to public health, not least
Chemist Warehouse customers in Royalla will see their meds delivered by drone.
experts at the TGA itself, though they have been strangely moot in public.
But in the face of all this, health ministers were still rounded up with impressive speed. That’ s testament to the guild’ s political access which, despite suggestions otherwise, is not simply explained by dollar donations at party fund-raisers.
The important point however, before getting too carried away, is that the Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, has already declared he has no intention of undermining the TGA.
The question now is whether health minsters will take the next step: whether they will, as the guild wants, change their own state regulations to allow pharmacists to continue selling codeine.
The guild has been telling ministers it has a plan to protect patients and only those in acute pain will have access to OTC codeine. Pharmacists can then use their MedsAssist dispensing system to track and foil potential misusers.
It has also been telling ministers that the damage from codeine— there
The question now is whether health ministers will take the next step... as the guild wants [ and ] change their own state regulations.
have been 1400 deaths linked with the drug over 10 years— is not the result of people getting pills from their local pharmacists but getting codeine scripts from their local GPs.
Health ministers are listening to these whisperings apparently.
However, while politicians have you can’ t think of anything better,” says Chemist Warehouse cofounder Damien Gance.
If electronic prescriptions are enabled, an elderly or infirm patient could be seen by a visiting doctor and have their medication delivered by drone 10 minutes later, Mr Gance adds.
He admitted his company was initially taken by surprise by the suggestion.“ When we were contacted by Google, we thought it was a joke at first.”
Fast-food vendor Guzman Y Gomez is also part of the trial, following on from Domino Pizza’ s experiment delivering pizzas via drones.
See Cartoon, page 30
hard heads they also have soft underbellies, and at some point, if it has not already occurred to them, they will do a cost-benefit calculation.
They know that if they adopt the guild’ s suggested exemptions, it will only take one overdose, one death or one inquest before they are hauled before the cameras and asked to explain why they ignored the doctor groups, the pain experts, the consumer groups and the TGA itself.
The guild’ s lobbying is impressive, but ultimately ministers are being asked to put their trust and political careers in the hands of the guild and its claims that nothing can go wrong.
And for politicians that may be too big an ask.
PCOS‘ mistakenly diagnosed’
JOCELYN WRIGHT MANY young women have been overdiagnosed or mistakenly selfdiagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, researchers say.
The Victorian study of 254 women found that 8 % reported being diagnosed with PCOS; however, just over a third of that 8 %( eight women) actually met the criteria for that condition.
Overdiagnosis was a concern because the women who believed they had the condition had significant and often unfounded anxiety about infertility, said clinicians from the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
They diagnosed PCOS using National Institute of Health criteria based on anovulation and clinical or biochemical signs of hyperandrogenism, but not ultrasound as used in Rotterdam criteria. They said diagnosing PCOS was challenging because symptoms could overlap with normal pubescent development.
“ Misinformation about fertility in this age group leads to unnecessary distress and anxiety,” they noted.
They also found that many young women with self-reported PCOS said doctors had not explained the condition properly.
“ This was an important group to consider as major health and lifestyle decisions are made at this age,” the researchers said.
“ Therefore we recommend the development of standardised criteria with set parameters that allow for better diagnosis of PCOS.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2017; online.
Proven efficacy. Aptamil ® AllerPro ™ is tolerated by 97 % of infants with mild to moderate cows’ milk protein allergy. 1
BREAST MILK IS BEST FOR BABIES: Professional advice should be followed before using an infant formula. Introducing partial bottle feeding could negatively affect breast feeding. Good maternal nutrition is important for breast feeding and reversing a decision not to breast feed may be difficult. Infant formula should be used as directed. Proper use of an infant formula is important to the health of the infant. Social and financial implications should be considered when selecting a method of feeding.
References: 1. Giampietro PG et al. Pediatr Allergy Immnol 2001; 12:83 – 6.
FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS ONLY Nutricia Australia Pty Limited, Level 4, Building D, 12 – 24 Talavera Road, Macquarie Park, NSW 2113. March 2017. ANZ / AAP1 / 17 / 0012. 14156FCB.
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