Drug Topics - February 2009 - (Page 23)

PEDIATRIC AND GERIATRIC PHARMACISTS it?” Helms asks. “One of the things the association tries to do is to gather best practices around case studies.” Overall changes in children’s health are bringing the pediatric pharmacist to the forefront, said Milap Nahata, PharmD, professor at Ohio State University with joint appointments in the colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine, where he teaches pediatric pharmacy. “For example, obesity is creating problems with diseases that we never treated in children before, such as Type 2 diabetes or hypertension.” There isn’t a simple formula to make medication acceptable for use in children. After all, children don’t always respond to medication as adults do. Lea Wolsoncroft, RPh, a pediatric pharmacist and owner of KidsMeds Pharmacy in Birmingham, Ala., said since she opened her store six years ago, she has seen a big increase in asthma cases, as well as in babies being treated for reﬂux. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) more than 6.8 million children have asthma — a rate that has more than doubled since the early 1980s. In addition, Wolsoncroft said premature babies and those with fragile conditions, such as recent heart surgery, beneﬁt most from the special knowledge of community pediatric pharmacists. “One of the things we do is we check all of our doses based on the weight of the child,” she said. “If you don’t know that and you’re not comfortable with morphine for a baby, you could make a big mistake on a 4-pound baby.” Ben Fry, RPh, owner of Small Fry’s Pharmacy in Harlingen, Texas, agrees that pediatric pharmacists can play a critical role in the treatment of infants and children. “You need to go be able to avail yourself of a pharmacy with experienced pharmacists who can recognize when there might be an overdose or [a potential] drug interaction,” Fry said. Serving a need On this day at Kids ’N Cures, Hannig looks over the shoulder of a pharmacy student. Hannig also interned here when she was a student at Ohio Northern University. After graduating, Hannig worked one year for a chain drug store, but found her calling when she returned ﬁve years ago as a full-time pharmacist at Kids ’N Cures. Hannig watches as the student compounds a methimazole gel. It’s not for a child with Grave’s disease, but for a cat with hyperthyroidism. Although pediatric pharmacy is more than 80 percent of Kids ’N Cures’ business, it is one of the few compounding pharmacies in the area. From marshmallow to bubble gum, Kids ’N Cures offers several ﬂavorings to help the medicine go down. Across town, Hannig’s counterpart, Brad Vaughn, is compounding progesterone suppositories, used to help prevent miscarriage, at the newest Kids ’N Cures, which opened two years ago. Compounding specialties for women, includ- ing bioidentical hormones and promethazine gel for morning sickness, are popular products at Kids ’N Cures. Brothers Frank and Dom Dundee, along with partner Dave Noday — all hospital pharmacists — opened the Boardman Kids ’N Cures in 1999. The idea of a pediatric pharmacy took root when the three partners started receiving calls from parents with children sent home from COURTESY GETTY IMAGES / STOCKBYTE / GEORGE DOYLE Fact Baby Boomers are fueling the growth of Geriatric Pharmacies 50+ W W W.D R U GTO P I C S .C O M Februar y 2009 DRUG TOPICS 23 http://WWW.DRUGTOPICS.COM

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Drug Topics - February 2009 Contents Health-System Edition Group Attempts to Resurrect Pain Care Act HSE Business Management HSE Clinical Letters Up Front Up Front in Depth Community Practice Niche Pharmacies Serve Special Populations Special Report Oral Oncology Drugs New Drugs Update 2008 Approvals OTC New Products Viewpoint

Drug Topics - February 2009

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