A “bunch of guys sitting around and talking”. This is not just a common occurrence in everyday life; this is an important business phenomenon. It is not enough for leaders to act as cogs in a machine; they need to perform a valuable, useful service that benefits the organization as a whole. Reed, the director […]
The pharmacy field is constantly changing and is a career that is currently in high demand. More pharmacy schools are being built and hold the responsibility of training the pharmacists of the future. Due to accreditation standards set by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), programs are expected to have their students complete Introductory […]
Good leadership starts at the hiring process. Organizations need employees that independently lead but also follow their managers. In order for managers to hire leader-worthy employees, the hiring process should be reexamined, modified, and improved (O’Connor, 2013). O’Connor (2013) says that “process change comes from the bottom-up, but culture change moves from the top-down” (p. […]
“I would prefer to spend time discussing briefly our greatest need in hospital pharmacy – leadership” (Francke, 1955). The need to discuss pharmacy leadership is still relevant today. There is a great lack of leadership that still exists in the pharmacy profession. Leadership comprises capacity, goals, and efficacy. Hospital organizations are unique because they are […]
In an increasingly competitive landscape, pharmaceutical companies are finding creative ways to protect their patents. Most of the time, patents are the only things that protect a company from direct competition. If a drug is successful but still protected under a patent, other companies prepare their chemical synthesis manufacturing capabilities to be able to take […]
Not all single payer systems are designed and deployed the same. Varying degrees of private insurance involvement, system funding via taxes, and coverage limits make the system customized to meet the needs of the constituents. Canada is often used as the model example of a single payer system since it shares a border with the […]
The United States has an extremely complex healthcare system that’s comprised of conflicting ideologies. Private insurance, federally-funded Medicare, and state-funded Medicaid are all available for Americans. However, there are still 28 million people who do not have any kind of insurance (Carroll & Frakt, 2017). The positive thing that comes from this mix of systems […]
The largest line item in the 2016 national healthcare budget was $1 trillion for hospital care which comprised of $670 billion for clinician services and $360 billion for drugs (Topol, 2017). Add in the fact that one in four patients are harmed while in the hospital and it’s easy to see that the American Healthcare […]
If the system isn’t entertaining a solution to decrease drug costs, a solution can be implemented to decrease medical costs which will decrease prescription costs. Dr. Barbara McAneny, CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center, has demonstrated that it’s possible to decrease costs while improving patient care. Appropriately prioritizing care via comprehensive triage and treatment […]
Some argue that it was too much regulation, not too little regulation that has caused the FDA to reject competing drugs due to existing patents. In a sense, this is good so that pharmaceutical companies can recoup R&D costs to create new drugs. On the other hand, the patients need to be able to afford […]
Some critics of industry prices think the high prices are due to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are essentially the middleman between the pharmacy and the drug manufacturer. However, as Tim Wentworth, a CEO from Express Scripts states, “Drug makers set prices, and we [the PBM] exist to bring them down” (Weinberg & Langreth, 2017). […]
Looking back in time, it’s mind-boggling to think about how Big Pharma pricing became so far out of control. Insulin therapy, presently in mainstream high supply and demand, used to be a cutting-edge treatment that was difficult to create. The three person team that created a way to generate insulin recognized the need for this […]
A very recent point of contention is the price of Epi-Pens® (Mylan). Epi-Pens® save the lives of people who experience anaphylactic shocks. Due to numerous petitions, Mylan claims that they dropped the price of the Epi-Pen®. But in reality, Mylan simply offered a $300 savings card to underinsured consumers (“The Other 98%”, 2017). Everyone else, […]
The world’s most expensive drug, as of 2016, is Soliris® (Alexion Pharmaceuticals) being priced at $409,500 a year per patient. The disease that this drug treats only affects 8,000 Americans, but the drug maker generated $295 million in one year for that one drug (Herper, 2010). Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of an anti-infection drug […]
During the 2017 transition of political power in America, there were many unanswered questions surrounding the future climate of technology, businesses, and jobs. IBM, a company that has been around for 105 years, has seen many periods of change and uncertainty. Education, IT infrastructure, and healthcare are important passions of IBM. There is no other […]
In the technology circuit, there have been debates and concerning discussions on the implications of robots, or artificial intelligence, gaining abilities and power. Concerns of ethics, privacy, and job availability have stemmed from the increasing abilities of these technologies. IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is convinced that Watson and other cognitive computing platforms will not lead […]