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Editorial: Chasing Rainbows? Part II

Chasing rainbows or pursuing dreams�one of the characteristics of the latter is "focus." To realize a dream one has to be focused on that dream and plan and work towards achieving it. Chasing rainbows may be a sign of a lack of focus, discipline, and wanting to take a short cut; immediate gratification vs. long-term sustained effort.

Since this is the football season, let's look at athletes for a comparison. Good, solid, talented, and successful football players must have focus, discipline, and a plan, and work towards achieving that plan. They cannot lack focus, lack discipline, or take shortcuts. They must pay the price to be successful. Monday morning quarterbacks may be chasing rainbows but the athletes are on the field taking their bumps and bruises and pursuing their dreams. Many don't make it, but those that succeed feel great about their accomplishments.

Pharmacy can be compared to being an athlete.

Athletes may have a choice of the sport they enjoy, whether it is football, basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, soccer, hockey, etc. In pharmacy, we have a choice to practice as a dispensing pharmacist, compounding pharmacist, community pharmacist, nuclear pharmacist, hospital pharmacist, governmental pharmacist, administrative pharmacist, research pharmacist, or others.

Athletes must be realistic when they select their sport and evaluate their talents, abilities, discipline and the effort they are willing to put out to achieve their goal. Pharmacists must be realistic when selecting their practice site and evaluate their interests, ability to work with patients and other health professionals, and discipline to focus on their job.

Athletes must give it their best at all times to stay at the top of their game through practice, practice, practice. Pharmacists must give it their best at all times to stay on top of their profession by education, education, education, instead of "Uh oh, I thought that I learned everything in college and didn't have to learn anything else and now I DESERVE a high salary!" Well, sad to say, that is the attitude of some pharmacists. They graduate, take a high-paying job or job-hop to keep getting higher salaries, but they don't keep up with what is going on and they do not give anything back to the profession that is allowing them to be in one of the top brackets of wage earners in the U.S. What is wrong with this picture?

There are many errors committed in healthcare today; physicians, pharmacists, nurses, aides, and others make thousands of errors every day. The pharmaceutical industry makes many errors resulting in recalls, etc. We must be concerned about the ones we make and work towards minimizing and eliminating them. Many errors are made because one does not "keep up" with the standards of pharmacy practice. In many cases, some are just "too busy" to keep up with the changes. These standards are constantly changing and must be addressed by even hiring additional personnel if needed. I think that lack of compliance with current standards and not using current available technology may be the single primary cause of the deaths and adverse events that have occurred in compounding pharmacy over the past several years. Many pharmacists are not keeping up with the standards and the technology that is available. They may be satisfied with their facility, procedures, etc., and don't realize that they may be 5, 10, or 20 years behind the times. Even though obtaining a pharmacy degree may be a pursued dream, becoming a professional practicing pharmacist is also the pursuit of a dream.

Athletes continually work to continue to be their best and be at the top; if they don't, they find themselves not being able to make the high salary or continue to play the sport they love. Some pharmacists believe that simply because they graduated with a 5 or 6 year degree that they are set for life and that the profession and society now owes them a living. Well, it doesn't work that way. Someone has to constantly be working for the profession to keep it at the top so others can continue to pursue their dreams. These are the professional pharmacists in pursuit of a dream.

Keeping the profession at the top means being a member of, and participating in, your state, local, and national pharmacy organizations as well as being active in promoting the profession in your community. It also means being active in promoting "compounding" and the truth about it rather than simply shaking your head in dismay when the national, state, and local media go on a "compounding-bashing rampage" by spouting untruths and misrepresentations, in some cases initiated and supported by the large pharmaceutical companies (See the article on BHRT in the Wall Street Journal this week). Being active in the profession is a part of a professional pharmacist's pursuit of a dream.

Is standing up for what is right and promoting the profession to be at the top "chasing rainbows" or "pursuing dreams". I think it is pursuing a dream and ultimately believing that as the quality of compounding increases and the word of its value to millions of patients is known, it will be not only accepted, but promoted as a major component of healthcare.

Loyd V. Allen, Jr., Ph.D., R.Ph
Editor-in-Chief

If you are still digging through reference books to find information, save your time and energy and checkout CompoundingToday.com's electronic tools. The latest tool added to CT.com is a Preservative and Antioxidants Tool.

It provides 25 preservatives, 22 antioxidants and 5 Adjuvants/Synergysts. Click one of the agents and you'll receive pertinent information such as concentration, pH, taste, odor and solubility, light, temperature, hydrogen ion concentration, presence of trace metals, or peroxides, incompatibility data as relevant.

Looking for information to help you prepare compounded medications is just a click away at CompoundingToday.com

37 citations and abstracts of articles related to endocrine disorders in premenopausal women were added to CompoundingToday.com this week. Find these articles in CompoundingToday.com's literature search database which now includes more than 2000 articles from nearly 700 publications. Here is a sample of those added this week:

• De Souza MC, Walker AF, Robinson PA et al. A synergistic effect of a daily supplement for 1 month of 200 mg magnesium plus 50 mg vitamin B6 for the relief of anxiety-related premenstrual symptoms: A randomized, double-blind, crossover study. J Womens Health Gend Based Med 2000; 9(2): 131-139.
• Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The evaluation and treatment of androgen excess. Fertil Steril 2004; 82(Suppl 1): S173-S180.
• Unfer V, Casini ML, Marelli G et al. Different routes of progesterone administration and polycystic ovary syndrome: A review of the literature. Gynecol Endocrinol 2005; 21(2): 119-127.
• Wyatt KM, Dimmock PW, Ismail KM et al. The effectiveness of GnRHa with and without "add-back" therapy in treating premenstrual syndrome: A meta-analysis. BJOG 2004; 111(6): 585-593.
• Zaiei S, Zakeri M, Kazemnejad A. A randomized controlled trial of vitamin E in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhoea. BJOG 2005; 112(4): 466-469.

CompoundingToday.com has partnered with Ebay to showcase only those items that are most interesting to compounding pharmacists. From CompoundingToday.com's homepage you can now see featured items or click "More Compounding Items" and see the list of books, Mortars and Pestles, pharmacy antiques and collectibles on Ebay.

This Regulatory Update has been provided by the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists. For more information, www.iacprx.org.

Wyeth Files Petition Seeking FDA Actions Against Pharmacies that Compound BHRT
On October 6, pharmaceutical giant Wyeth filed a citizen petition seeking FDA actions to counter flagrant violations of the law by pharmacies compounding Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement [BHRT] therapy drugs that endanger public health." The implications of this petition are daunting but IACP is prepared to fight back. As an initial step, IACP has prepared a press release that highlights flaws in Wyeth's submission. The release has been sent to media and trade press. IACP will also prepare a complete legal response to the petition. For more information, visit http://www.iacprx.org/eLinks/10_27_05.html.

Louisiana Board of Pharmacy Revises Emergency Guidelines
Late last month the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy revised its Hurricane Emergency Guidelines. This important document lists vital information relating to the Integrity of Medication Stock in Pharmacies Directly Impacted by Hurricanes. To review the complete document, click here.

This International Update has been provided by Dr. Diego Ramon of the International Society of Pharmaceutical Compounding, http://www.isphc.com/about.htm

New Compounding Regulations Passed in Colombia
A new regulation was recently passed in Colombia (Decreto 2200 de 2005) that will rule the provision of pharmaceutical services in the country. One of the main chapters in the text is dedicated to pharmaceutical compounding.

Despite the significant impact and importance of pharmaceutical compounding in Colombia, there are still some 'grey zones' that need to be clarified. The objective now is to define and settle the parameters for its development.

The new regulation now needs to be developed and clarified in an "Application Guide", currently under evaluation. The need to adopt Good Laboratory Practices in the laboratories and services involved in pharmaceutical compounding is creating new challenges and opportunities.

The new 'Decreto 2200 de 2005' is perceived among the compounding community in Colombia as a long-time needed first step, of greatest importance if pharmaceutical compounding is to be developed and practiced with the required quality and professional criteria.

(ISPhC and IJPC thanks ALEJANDRA GONZ�LEZ HENAO For this information)

Magnetic stir bar retrieval
Don't have a magnetic stir bar retriever and need to keep the stir bar from sliding from the beaker into the prescription container or sink? Simply lift the beaker and place a second stir bar on the bottom of the beaker and it will hold the inside stir bar in place while the beaker is being emptied. If you need to remove the stir bar from the beaker, simply follow the above procedure but then move the stir bar from the bottom of the beaker slowly up the side of the beaker and out and the stir bar inside the beaker will follow and will be removed from the beaker.