Pharmacy & Therapeutics - April 2008 - (Page 248) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR continued from page 200 that would improve the written medication order, which is historically incomplete and subject to interpretation. Electronic medication order entry mandates that institutions begin to carefully standardize their nomenclature. Health care organizations must define what the terms “stat,” “now,” “routine,” “frequencies,” and “priorities” mean to them. Albeit sometimes reluctantly, physicians, nurses, and pharmacist eventually begin to speak the same language. I still read the traditional print version of the New England Journal of Medicine. I am impressed with the multiple pages of glossy drug advertisements that precede the scholarly articles. I know that I can’t possibly absorb all the pharmaceutical information; I need to rely on clinical pharmacists to filter out the relevant information and to alert me to the unintended consequences that medication therapies cause. I need the pharmacist to understand my hospital workflow and to attempt to educate me. In an era of sensory overload, I don’t need another fax or another monthly newsletter. I need appropriate clinical alerts and medicationprocessing instructions that educate the physician at the moment of entering orders. CPOE for medications should ultimately meet this need. I see potential in these applications, but only if the appropriate knowledge experts devote the time to building and modifying the clinical content. As I look through the archives of P&T, I am surprised by the lack of attention paid to what I would consider pharmacy-relevant informatics articles. I would have thought that the pharmacy community would be more aggressive in commenting about the databases being developed by independent vendors. Hospitals have spent millions of dollars purchasing these systems, and the reactions of pharmacists seem muted. I even sense a desire to maintain the traditional silos that exist. I also sense an undesirable subdivision among pharmacists into dispensing pharmacists, clinical pharmacists, and part-time pharmacists who spend their time building the medication component of CPOE applications. I suspect that P&T has a significant influence on the pharmacy community, and I’m disappointed by the lack of regular attention paid to the electronic medication order entry process. I anticipate that P&T’s audience would be receptive to articles on pharmaceutical informatics. Formalizing the process of filtering medication information into electronic order entry applications is becoming an important new responsibility of P&T committees. Sincerely, Joseph A. Catapano, MD, FACC, MMM Greenbrook, New Jersey The Language of Change at P&T I am responding to your request, “So tell us what you want—what you really, really want,” as mentioned in the Editor’s Memo—“The Language of (Forgive Us) Change, As P&T Enters the Digital Age”—in the February 2008 issue of P&T. The digital edition of P&T sounds fascinating, and I will use it to link to other sites. What I “really really want” is your commitment to continue to publish the hard copy. While nowhere was the elimination of hard copy mentioned, it may be the next step in the progression towards a paperless system of communication. I thoroughly enjoyed your Editor’s Memo and the condemnation of SAPs [Supremely Annoying Phrases]. Thank you for your attention to this “urgent matter that may strategically impact the long-range visions and short term operations as P&T continues to pursue the goal of reinventing itself to accommodate its customer needs.” (Do I get an honorable mention in the SAP contest?) Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully, Teri Luebbering, RPh, CGP, FASCP Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin Editor’s reply: The print version is not going away anytime soon—and yours is the best SAP I’ve seen all day. —Sonja Sherritze 248 P&T® • April 2008 • Vol. 33 No. 4
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