Purple Pen Podcast

Dan and Kristin spoke to Dr Juanita Westbury, Senior Lecturer with the Wicking Dementia Research & Education Centre at the University of Tasmania about the best practice use of antipsychotics in aged care. We spoke to Juanita about: The roles for pharmacists in aged care facilities Common issues with medicines use in aged care facilities Complexities around the term “chemical restraint” Best practice for the management of behavioural symptoms of dementia

We caught up with Dr Simone Taylor from Austin Health and Amy McRae from Alfred Health about their work. Both Simone and Amy had projects featured in the “Time To Shine” session at last year’s SHPA Medicines Management Conference. Amy’s paper is titled “Collaboration Between Healthcare and Industry to Improve the Safety of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents in Australia”. It describes an initiative to improve the packaging and labelling of these high-risk medicines. Simone’s paper is titled “Emergency Department Screening Tools to Assist Pharmacists Targeting Patients at Risk For Medication Related Problems”. It describes the development of a tool to help pharmacists to identify patients who are at highest risk and would benefit most from pharmacist intervention.

Recorded live at MM2018 in Brisbane, Dan and Kristin sat down with Erica Tong, Deputy Director of Pharmacy and Chief Pharmacy Information Officer for Alfred Health about partnered pharmacist medication charting. We spoke to Erica about her team’s work developing a model for partnered pharmacist medication charting on admission to hospital and the safety outcomes that have been achieved.

Happy holidays! The team is taking an episode off over Christmas, and in honour of Rohan’s Clinical Pharmacy award at 2018, we are re-broadcasting this “classic hit”. We will see you all in the new year with some great new episodes Jane and Dan spoke to Dr Rohan Elliott, senior pharmacist in aged care at Austin Health, adjunct senior lecturer at Monash University, and a research consultant with the Royal District Nursing Service Institute.  We talk to Rohan about: ·      The definition of geriatric medicine, and what it means to be frail ·      How the geriatric medicine approach differs from other specialties ·      Decision making in geriatric medicine

In this very special holiday episode, Dan and Kristin are joined by Dr Lindsey Fitzharris. Lindsey has a PhD in History from Oxford University and authored the wonderful book “The Butchering Art” which details the efforts of Joseph Lister to make surgery safer. We discuss: What surgery was like before anaesthetics and antiseptics How these agents were introduced to Britain Why you didn’t want surgery in a hospital in the 1800s Two key surgeons in Victorian Britain: Liston and Lister Joseph Lister’s relentless drive to introduce antiseptics to surgical practice Lots of gory details about surgery 150 years ago!

Recorded live at MM2018, the 44th SHPA National Conference, Jane, Dan and Kristin caught up with keynote speaker Prof Brian Dolan. Brian is Director of Health Service 360 (UK) and Director of Service Improvement, Canterbury District Health Board, NZ where his role includes whole system culture engagement and change. why boredom could be worse than smoking for our patients the language that we use in healthcare that can be problematic for our patients what is meant by the term “PJ Paralysis” and how this became a movement

This is Part 2 of our episode recorded live at the Antibiotic Allergy in Practice Workshop at Austin Health. We spoke to Prof Elizabeth Phillips, Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University (USA); Prof Connie Katelaris, Allergist and Immunologist at the University of Western Sydney and Campbelltown Hospital; and Dr James Yun, Allergist and Immunologist and the University of Sydney. We were really lucky to get to speak to this panel of experts. We asked them about: practical aspects of delabelling antibiotic allergies the emerging role of genetic testing why not all SCARs are created equal emerging treatment options for severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs) the long-term sequelae of a severe adverse reaction

Jane and Dan attended the Antibiotic Allergy in Practice Workshop, held at Austin Health. In this bumper episode we speak with a number of distinguished guests around the management of antibiotic allergy: Dr Ar Kar Aung, ID Physician from The Alfred discusses the classification and detection of antibiotic adverse reactions Dr MIchelle Goh, Dermatologist at Alfred Health, Austin Health and Peter MacCallum regarding characterising allergy phenotypes Dr Natasha Holmes, ID and Antibiotic Allergy Physician, on drug induced acute interstitial nephritis Karen Urbancic, ID Pharmacist at Austin Health and the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship, on the practicalities of desensitisation protocols.

Back by popular demand, Prof Jason Roberts joins Dan to discuss ceftriaxone. They discuss situations where ceftriaxone is useful (spoiler: it's not "being an inpatient") and some pharmacokinetic quirks.

Jane caught up with A/Prof Ernie Butler, neurologist and head of the Monash MS Clinic at the SHPA Vic Branch symposium. We discuss: Why neurology is the most interesting specialty Background to MS - the link to the sun and its symptoms and progression Management of MS with traditional drugs, and how the monoclonal antibodies fit into practice Monitoring for side effects, including screening for JC virus Managing these side effects  

Jane chats with Dr Jenny Stephens, pain specialist and anaesthetist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. Jane and Jenny discuss: The significance of Australia’s problem with prescription opioids How the risks of post-operative opioids may start before admission The problems, beyond dependance, caused by long term opioid use Risk factors for opioid dependance post-discharge How Australia compares to the rest of the world with regard to problems with prescription opioids The impact of a pharmacy-led intervention at St Vincent’s Sydney Empowering junior doctors to stand up for good opioid prescribing Simple interventions pharmacists can make to help Empowering patients and managing their expectations around analgesia

Jane and Dan caught up with Chris Braithwaite, a pharmacist with the Galambila Aboriginal Health Service in Northern NSW. Chris spoke to us about: his journey to working with indigenous communities what an average day looks like the challenges posed by existing funding models for home medicines reviews cultural competence and institutional racism

Dr Kimberley Haines, Vice Chair of ANZICS Victorian Branch and ICU Physio at Western Health joins Dan and Jane to discuss survival following ICU admissions. Dr Kimberley discusses her journey to research, what happens to patients following ICU discharge and how we can improve the ICU journey for patients, staff and family.

Jane and Dan caught up with Professor Jason Roberts, NHMRC Practitioner Fellow at The University of Queensland and Consultant Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Jason is a senior member of the Burns Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre within the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and is Director of the Centre for Translational Anti-infective Pharmacodynamics in School of Pharmacy where he is also Chair of the research Strategies Committee.  We could have talked to Jason all day. In part two of our two-part discussion on pharmacokinetic modelling of antimicrobials we talk about: different pharmacodynamic models for antimicrobials: concentration, time and AUC dependant  the clinical evidence for using pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling future directions for clinical pharmacokinetics

Jane and Dan caught up with Professor Jason Roberts, NHMRC Practitioner Fellow at The University of Queensland and Consultant Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Jason is a senior member of the Burns Trauma and Critical Care Research Centre within the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research and is Director of the Centre for Translational Anti-infective Pharmacodynamics in School of Pharmacy where he is also Chair of the research Strategies Committee.  We could have talked to Jason all day. In part one of our two-part discussion on pharmacokinetic modelling of antimicrobials we talk about: Jason's pathway to a research career and the projects that his team are currently working on The patients and pathogens that benefit from individualised dosing of antimicrobials The narrowing therapeutic indices of some antimicrobials Some under-recognised adverse effects of beta-lactam antibiotics how to apply pharmacokinetics and individualised dosing in everyday practice

Dan caught up with NAPSA President Sandra Minas at the inaugural SHPA-NAPSA symposium in Melbourne on Friday. We discussed issues facing students, the results of the latest NAPSA survey and key programs being rolled out by NAPSA. We learn that despite concerns about graduate numbers, the rise of discounters and low pay, almost all pharmacy students are dedicated to their profession, and are looking forward to their careers.

Jane and Dan spoke to Horst Thiele from the Primary Care and Transitions of Care specialty practice leadership group. We asked Horst about the barriers and opportunities for pharmacists to assist patients at transitions of care and the evidence base for these services.

Dan and Jane are joined by Clarissa Rentsch to discuss updates on Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Clarissa Rentsch. Clarissa is the Senior Pharmacist - Gastroenterology at Alfred Health, and discusses new therapy for IBD, the developing role for TDM in the management of this disease and her innovative clinic based role at The Alfred. We discuss: Commencing therapy with and monitoring purine analogues Infliximab - its expanding role in therapy, and the emerging field of TDM for biologicals Clarissa's innovative role in the clinics, including dose adjustment and monitoring.

Jane and Dan spoke to Dr Manuel Serrano Santos, Lecturer of Pharmacy at QUT and member of the editorial committee for the third edition of Don't Rush to Crush. We spoke to Manuel about: his role as a specialist dysphagia pharmacist what goes wrong when medicines are modified inappropriately common reasons for making mistakes when modifying medicines

This is a reboot of our first ever episode: Antibiotic Allergies with Dr Jason Trubiano