American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
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Pharmacists in the fight against
terrorism
More than 16,000 pharmacists from all over the
world attended the 36th Midyear Clinical Meeting of the American
Society of Health-System Pharmacists in New Orleans in December
2001. Christine Clark (freelance medical writer) and Laurence
Goldberg (consultant pharmacist) report on the highlights, which
included presentations on aspects of counter-terrorism and on protecting
patients from medication errors
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Counter-terrorism: lessons from
11 September There were substantial pharmaceutical requirements
for responding to situations in which there were mass casualties, said
Joseph Deffenbaugh (professional practice associate, professional practice
and scientific affairs division, ASHP), introducing an unscheduled conference
session on counter-terrorism...[more]
ASHP counter-terrorism
resources The ASHP has taken a leading role in counter-terrorism
and emergency planning...[more]
Medication
errors: analysis, action and feedback needed Medication error
reporting is not simply a matter of counting reports but involves analysis,
action and feedback, according to Dr James P. Bagian (director, National
Centre for Patient Safety, Department of Veterans Affairs)...[more]
FDA
moves on bar coding The United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) has reaffirmed its commitment to require bar coding on all prescription
drug labels in an effort to reduce medication errors which reportedly
injure or kill 50,000–100,000 patients a year in the US, at a cost of
$177bn...[more]
Patient
protection survey Screening medication orders for potential
drug interactions and developing clinical practice guidelines were just
two of the activities that pharmacists undertook to protect patients in
hospital against prescribing errors, according to the results of a study
by the ASHP...[more]
Web
page for product shortages The ASHP has developed a web page
to help pharmacy managers handle drug product shortages (Drug Product
Shortages Management Resource Center, accessible via the ASHP website)...[more]
Award-winners'
posters Almost 1,000 posters were presented during the conference.
Among these were 126 international posters — several of which were
from the United Kingdom...[more]
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