The PharmaTrust dispensing machine is set to be deployed in Canadian hospitals in the province of Ontario, according to an Ontario Hospital Association press release : The OHA and PharmaTrust will collaborate on the installation of telepharmacy prescription-dispensing kiosks in hospitals across the province. PharmaTrust MedCentre kiosks offer live video pharmacist counseling and quick and safe 24/7 access to prescription and over-the-counter medications, dispensed under the complete control of a pharmacist

Read more here:
Ontario Hospitals will Dispense Drugs via PharmaTrust Kiosks

According to this Associated Press article , funds just keep rolling in for the rural community of Adrian, Minnesota’s retail pharmacy that employs remote supervision of a pharmacy technician by a pharmacist in another MN city: The southwestern Minnesota community of Adrian is getting $99,999 to help finance small and emerging businesses. Adrian has already identified the Sterling Drug tele-pharmacy for initial financing, and expects the grant will help create or save six jobs.

Continue reading here:
Minnesota Retail Telepharmacy Receives Another Grant

Arts and humanities researchers interested in collaborating with campus technologists and librarians to develop innovative technology project proposals for the upcoming Arts & Humanities Initiative (AHI) grant cycle are encouraged to attend one of two workshops. While project consultations are geared toward AHI applicants, any researcher interested in getting a digital project off the ground is encouraged to attend.

Excerpt from:
Digital Humanities Project Development Workshops

January 2010 Issue 1.10 Welcome to the winter issue of Transitions. The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments informnig the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new products and programs, the open access movement, and other alternative publishing models.

Read more from the original source:
Transitions: scholarly communication news for the UI Community, January 2010

The Psychology Library closed December 18, 2009, and by January 13, 2010, all materials were moved.  The collection was divided among the Biological Sciences Library, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, and the Library Annex.  Except as noted below, the Psychology Library materials have been moved to the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences, where they are located on the first floor. Is there a librarian for Psychology and Education students and faculty? Yes.  Dottie Persson will have offices in Seashore Hall (E201 SSH, 335-3080) and the Lindquist Center (N426 LC, 335-5232) to serve the Psychology Department and the College of Education.  As a result of closing some branch libraries, the library system is joining other academic institutions in moving to the concept of an embedded librarian, a librarian who performs research consultations, reference, user instruction and collection management in an electronic environment and who responds to faculty, student and staff who report library related technical or service problems

See more here:
FAQs about Psychology Collection (UPDATED)

In a newly published paper entitled Health Extension in New Mexico: An Academic Health Center and the Social Determinants of Disease , researchers analyze a University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center project given the acronym “Health Extension Rural Offices” (aka HEROs) as “a vehicle for its model of health extension.” According to the paper , some adjustments were made at the behest of Silver City, NM that allowed improved health services: UNMHSC College of Pharmacy helped revise New Mexico State Board of Pharmacy regulations to permit pharmacists in larger towns to use a telepharmacy service to supervise local pharmacy technicians in rural and frontier counties. Initiated by the local HERO agent, telepharmacy will permit the local pharmacy to remain open, which is a health and economic benefit to the community. This happened sometime probably in early 2009, as the paper was submitted in July, accepted in October and finally published now in the first Annals of Family Medicine of 2010.

Continue reading here:
New Mexico Allows Remote Supervision of Pharmacy Technicians, Prevents Closing of Local Pharmacy

Tammy Worth writes a new article for the Health Care Reform Hub of the American Pharmacists Association’s pharmacist.com called ” Creating a virtual team: The future for medical homes? ” In the article, Worth notes “working virtually” may be the answer to a lot of pharmacy’s hurdles. She mentions the venerable North Dakota Telepharmacy Project as well as the lesser known project out of the University of Nebraska Medical Center , where pharmacists work from home to provide inpatient pharmacy services: Lisa Moffett, PharmD, went to pharmacy school, completed her residency, and then decided to stay at home with her children.

See the original post here:
Technology Allows Pharmacists to Deliver Services from Home

If you have tried unsuccessfully to find a book or journal volume in the library stacks, it is possible that it may have been sent to the Library Annex in late summer of 2009.  InfoHawk r ecords are being updated to indicate which books are in that facility and a retrieval service will enable you to have them brought back to campus for your use.  While we are in the process of updating InfoHawk , it may be necessary to use our Interlibrary Loan services to get access to some needed titles until this work has been completed.  This situation came about through a series of events resulting from 2008 flood and the recent economic downturn.   The flood of 2008 required us to move the Music and Art Libraries temporarily into the already overcrowded Main Library.  To make matters worse, the recent economic downturn deferred indefinitely the construction of a planned collection storage facility.

Read more here:
Important announcement about materials sent to the Library Annex

Back in September the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy granted and renewed a host of variances for pharmacies around the state: New variances: Abbot Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis was permitted to have a pharmacist provide remote verification of pre-op and post-op orders for the Edina Surgery Center so long as the pharmacist-in-charge remains the same person. Extension to current variances: West Duluth Clinic Pharmacy in Duluth was allowed to provide telepharmacy services to the Duluth Clinic in Remer, MN for the duration of two years so long as they continue to make visits and monitor usage. Re-approved variances: Cub Pharmacy in Cottage Grove and Cub Pharmacy in Shorewood were permanently allowed pharmacist certification of the prescription medication with use of the digital image of the medication so long as the pharmacist-in-charge remains the same

Read this article:
Minnesota Board of Pharmacy Grants Telepharmacy Variances

The Idaho Board of Pharmacy just released their 2009 Performance Measurement Report. A retail telepharmacy project makes the Performance Highlights list: We extended a temporary rule that will bring pharmacy services to a remote location in Idaho by means of a telepharmacy.

Read the original:
Idaho Board of Pharmacy 2009 Year in Review: Telepharmacy eases pharmacist shortage, restores services

A collaborative of Maine critical access hospitals has received the New England Rural Health Roundtable’s President’s Award for implementing new technology, practices and communication to improve patient safety over the course of 18 months and compiled the data: MeHAF will support the hospitals’ efforts to disseminate solutions generated by the project, including medication reconciliation, interventions related to high-alert medications, enhanced patient and staff education, and telepharmacy plans that more closely involve pharmacists in remote regions. Here’s the bulletin from GIH (Grantmakers in Health) with a bit more detail. MeHAF is the Maine Health Access Foundation, who made the announcement.

Read the original:
Maine CAHs Receive Award for Patient Safety Solutions, Will Recommend Telepharmacy

The Idaho State Office of Rural Health guided three grant applicants to some Flex Grants provided by the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program in August. Benewah Community Hospital and Harms Memorial Hospital were able to implement Electronic Medical Records while Syringa were a bit more advanced: Syringa Hospital and Clinics ($23,392): Utilization of a telemedicine robot program to increase access to health care services; development of electronic prescribing connectivity for use of Electronic Health Records and in preparation for eventual telepharmacy. Partners: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and Irwin Drug.

More here:
Medicare Grant Preps Idaho Clinics for Telepharmacy System

The Minnesota Society of Health System Pharmacists just released a position statement assessing the changes they feel are required, called Pharmacy Technician Education, Training and Competency . In the statement, highlight many of the roles technicians are increasingly expected to take on, and use some trends research to speculate on the “Future of Healthcare” in the state: There will be increasing needs for pharmacists in prescription and telepharmacy to improve services to rural areas of the state.

Originally posted here:
Minnesota Sees Need for Telepharmacy in Rural Areas Rising in 2010

InformationWeek published an interesting article today about Health Information Exchanges (networks for sharing patient information between health-systems) in the United States. Marianne Kolbasuk McGee highlights a specific network , the Western Washington Rural Health Care Collaborative where by virtue of the fact that they use an Information Exchange, the hospitals are able to provide telepharmacy services to each other: The exchange will initially provide the smaller hospitals, some of which have fewer than 25 beds and are located 35 or more miles from other healthcare providers, with telepharmacy services. Patient data, such as allergies, medications, lab results, and demographic information, is collected in a central repository, and pharmacists at one of the facilities can remotely provide assistance to other hospitals.

See the article here:
Establishment of Health Information Exchange Facilitates Telepharmacy Service

Julie Garner of the University of Washington Alumni Magazine wrote an interesting article about the use of a central telepharmacy site in Bellevue to improve pharmacy services in the state of Washington: Bellegrove started telepharmacies at the Mattawa Clinic and Wenatchee Valley Medical’s Royal City Clinic in 2008. Here’s how it works: The Bellegrove pharmacist talks with technicians and patients at the clinics through the Internet. The techs then fax prescriptions and insurance information to the pharmacist in Bellevue, who provides approval and instructions for filling the prescriptions.

Read more from the original source:
Retail Telepharmacy Program in Washington "a big hit", Restores Pharmacy Services to Two Communities

Baldwin Family Health Care, which operates a number of family medical clinics in Michigan, is another recipient of the 2009 Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants from the US Department of Agriculture: The DLT project connects the applicant with remote pharmacists through tele-pharmacy.

Go here to read the rest:
Michigan Health Clinic Receives Rural Development Grant for Remote Pharmacists

From the Rapid City Journal out of Rapid City, SD, comes this news: Regional Health of Rapid City will receive a $386,549 federal grant to buy videoconferencing devices to link 15 sites, including rural hospitals as well as clinics, with regional medical resources at three sites in Rapid City. The grant was one of three Distance Learning and Telemedicine grants awarded in South Dakota last week by U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.

Go here to read the rest:
South Dakota Hospital gets Huge Telepharmacy Equipment Grant

The Scotland County Memorial Hospital District, serving Scotland and Schuyler Counties (Memphis area) in northeast Missouri received a $62,622 grant from the US Department of Agriculture, as 1 of 4 Missouri grant recipients from this year’s USDA Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program: This project will connect a hospital, two clinic and a phamacy. The primary purpose is telepharmacy. There will also be upgrades to the existing video-conferencing system which supports remote consultation

See the article here:
Missouri Hospital District receives USDA telepharmacy grant

Watson’s Personal Care Stores , the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia, has posted a job listing for a pharmacy technician at a Singapore location: The successful candidate’s primary responsibility will be to provide telepharmacy services at Pharmacy stores. You will assist Pharmacists in preparing and dispensing medications to customers via Teleconferencing, as well as to assist in the maintenance of the dispensary to fulfill legal requirements. It sounds like it’s just a tech position, and they are calling patient conferencing by a pharmacist via telecommunications “telepharmacy.” Still, very cool and this is the first I’ve heard of this in use in Asia!

Read the rest here:
Retail Telepharmacy Rears Head in Singapore!

Professor Linda K. Kerber, the May Brodbeck Professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences, was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in Des Moines on August 29, 2009.  Please join us as we celebrate Professor Kerber, who has devoted her life and career to the empowerment of women through a better understanding of women’s history.  Thursday, December 10, 2009 4:00-5:30 p.m. (program at 4:30 p.m.) Iowa Women’s Archives, 3rd floor, Main Library Since joining the History Department faculty in 1971 Professor Kerber has inspired and mentored generations of students.  Her creative intellect, influential leadership, and invigorating teaching place her at the top of her field.  She is a champion of the humanities and a steadfast supporter of archives.

More:
Kerber Recognition in Iowa Womens Archives, Dec 10