Web-based technology is tidal wave, carrying hospital pharmacy's future
Pharmacy informatics field is hot
Hospitals increasingly will create pharmacy information technology (IT) positions as the web-based information age ushers in the use of the Internet for enhancing pharmacy careers, educating pharmacists and the public, and communicating with patients, experts say.
"What you have now is the development of those services not only for personal use, but an explosion of use in professional development," says Jerry Fahrni, PharmD, IT pharmacist at Kaweah Delta, a 530-bed hospital and health care system in Visalia, CA.
"The entire model of pharmacy for 40 years-plus is a brick and mortar business," says Todd Eury, executive director of Pharmacy Technology Resource, a consulting team that helps pharmacies and is based in Pittsburgh, PA. Eury also is the acting director of sales for KeyCentrix Inc. of Wichita, KS.
"You take pharmacies and layer them with an Internet program or campaign that will allow the pharmacy to reach deeper into its community," Eury says.
The new frontier of hospital pharmacy is interacting and providing services through interactive technology to patients, says John Poikonen, PharmD, clinical informatics director of the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, MA.
Pharmacy informatics is exploding with a recent study showing that 60% of hospitals with 100 or more beds have a pharmacy informatics specialist, Poikonen says.
"That's the new frontier, if you will," Poikonen says. "It's still very immature, and people are trying to figure out the best models."
One model involves using web-based technology to both educate and communicate with patients. The technology can expedite the time it takes to schedule appointments or answer patients' questions about drugs, Poikonen says.
Another emerging model involves the use of social networking sites to enhance professional and educational development, as well as to improve pharmacy research.
"There are a lot of smart people out there and finding them has been the problem," Fahrni says. "You used to meet them at yearly meetings."
Since Fahrni began meeting people through the Internet in the past few months, he's achieved more in terms of networking and obtaining cutting-edge information than he had in the past 12 years of networking through traditional mediums, he says.
"I use Twitter primarily," Fahrni says. "I also use Facebook, but it's mostly for friends and family and personal information, and I have a blog that is on a personal web site that's all about pharmacy and informatics."
On-line social networking has expanded so quickly it's a little scary, Eury says.
"I can't believe how fast it's moving," he says. "In the nine months I've been involved in social networking, Google has invested millions of dollars into the evolution by preparing to take over the GPS world — all through social networking."
Eury visits Twitter, but also communicates through podcasts.
"I was podcasting once a month, and pharmacists would subscribe to it," he notes.
At a colleague's suggestion, he increased his podcasts to once a week, and now he thinks he might have to do podcasts at least twice a week because the industry is hungry for content, Eury says.
"These are interviews with other professionals in the industry," Eury says.
The key for pharmacy directors and staff is to establish their footprint in the web world, starting with their own web sites that stream news, Eury suggests.
Pharmacists can use the web and interactive technology to identify emerging trends, as well as to create a professional presence, Poikonen says.
"They can use Twitter and blogs and others to pattern what they should be paying attention to as professionals," Poikonen says. "They can see what trends are out there, what new studies are out there, and things like that."
It's a way to keep up with literature and to gain good perspectives on patient care and medications, he adds.
"There are a handful of bloggers I religiously follow to keep up to date, for example, on infectious diseases," Poikonen says. "That's the professional aspect that has transformed how I keep up to date on pharmacy medicine and informatic trends."
Health care leaders often misunderstand the importance of on-line social networks.
"There's a lack of understanding in health care with people thinking that everyone on a social network is goofing off and wasting time," Fahrni says. "This is a great way of communicating with people outside your hospital and even outside your country."
For example, Fahrni recently had an on-line conversation with a pharmacist from the United Kingdom and a physician from Australia about allergies.
"The physician discussed open source systems in regard to allergies, and she told me what they're working on and where they're heading and what they need in the development of new software," he explains. "It gave me a unique idea of where we're heading and what I should look for six months down the road."
The conversation was remarkable because it took place early in the morning before Fahrni's day began in California, but the afternoon for the British pharmacist and very late at night for the Australian physician. It'd be difficult to schedule a three-way call between professionals in such different time zones, and yet on the web this interaction occurred naturally.
"I meet them on Twitter, which is the primary place to meet career-minded people in my field," Fahrni says. "Then we had a discussion on Google Wave, which allows you to communicate in real time."
This was the first time Fahrni had used Google Wave, and it worked well, he says.
"The boundaries for communication are gone because of the web," Fahrni says. "It's provided us with unprecedented access."
Fahrni gained information on how to improve weaknesses regarding patient allergy information and how to classify them electronically.
"This gave me a great perspective of where I need to go in the next year," he adds.
Web social networking makes it possible for pharmacists to share information quickly and to receive instant feedback on misinformation or mistakes, Fahrni says.
"Health care systems can use this as a tool to not only educate, but also to keep people informed," Fahrni says. "We can use the Internet to inform the community, keep people updated on H1N1 and where to get vaccinated and how and when."
Health care systems and hospital pharmacists, in particular, have a great deal to offer the public in the form of accurate and trustworthy information.
"There's tons of noise out there and people doing their own research," Eury notes.
Most people find it overwhelming and would welcome a source they know and trust.
For example, the Cleveland Clinic has established a web presence with health information that is followed by nearly 6,000 people.
"The Cleveland Clinic has people who visit them on Facebook to source their health information news because they know it's a trusted source," Eury adds. "And they're getting the information through a social network — not even a web site."
The Cleveland Clinic posts updates with specific health news information, such as the location of flu vaccines or headlines from the health care news of the day. Then its followers can comment on the news and receive some response from the Cleveland Clinic when appropriate.
Since Internet users now have the choice to put Facebook on their start-up screens, this gives the Cleveland Clinic a head start on posting the first piece of news they might see in a given morning.
Hospital pharmacists should view the web as a tool and use its social media for professional purposes, Fahrni says.
"We need to move the entire health care structure toward the web and get rid of desktop modeling," Fahrni says.
"Say you're on the computer and it dies in the middle of a 10-page document," he says. "Well, if it's web-based it doesn't die."
Hospitals increasingly will create pharmacy information technology (IT) positions as the web-based information age ushers in the use of the Internet for enhancing pharmacy careers, educating pharmacists and the public, and communicating with patients, experts say.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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