We’re gonna need that TPS form

If you think a lot of your paperwork is a waste of time, you’re right — and you’re not alone. A new study in Health Affairs found that administravia “accounts for 15 to 30 percent of healthcare spending in the U.S.”

Fine, fine, that’s just the price of a complex system. But the fun (not fun) part: “half of that ’does not contribute to health outcomes in any discernible way’.”

Specifically, $285 – $570 billion-with-a-b is just flushed down the metaphorical toilet. Well, obviously someone is getting that money (looking at you, PBMs), but it’s not helping anyone get healthier and we’re all paying for it.

Don’t forget your region meeting!

The dates and locations for GPhA’s fall region meetings are set — so if you haven’t registered for yours yet, get cracking!

They’ll be fun and relaxing dinners with friends and colleagues from your area, and a chance to (re)connect with other pharmacists, techs, and even students.

So get out from behind your counter, find your meeting, and register today at GPhA.org/regionmeetings!

(What’s your region? Click here to find out.)

The bad news: Thanks to new ACPE guidelines, we can’t offer CE credit any more. Then again, we know most of you came for the great meal, awesome attendees, and a chance to get a quick update on what GPhA is up to.

Well that’s good news

Pfizer reports that it’s bivalent, Omicron-targeted booster does, in fact, work; it “generated a strong immune response and was well-tolerated in testing on humans.”

If you’re thinking “Haven’t we been giving that booster since early September?” you’re correct. But now we’re sure it works and it’s safe!

Could polypharmacy be a dementia warning?

Yes, it could. The closer they get to a dementia diagnosis, the more medications a patient is likely to be taking. And we’re not talking about drugs that hint at the upcoming problem. The most common treatments are for “respiratory or urinary infections, arthropathies and rheumatism, and cardio-vascular disease,” although a notable number also take antidepressants.

They found that in the 20 years leading up to them being diagnosed, the proportion of patients taking three or more medications rose from 5.5% (for the period 16 to 20 years prior to diagnosis) to 82.16% among those less than five years from a diagnosis.

Paxlovid and heart meds

Paxlovid is now the gold standard for preventing Covid infection from becoming Covid hospitalization, but a new caveat has emerged: Common heart medications may interact with it.

That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a danger, say the cardio-oncologists at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Massachusetts who conducted the study. Rather, health providers need to be aware of the possibilities.

For example, antiarrhythmic agents should be discontinued during Paxlovid use, while patients taking clopidogrel should be switched to prasugrel if possible to avoid blood clots — to cite two examples.

“Awareness of the presence of drug-drug interactions of Paxlovid with common cardiovascular drugs is key.”

Friendly fire from ICU antibiotics

Antibiotics given to critically ill patients may do more harm than good. Some of them — the ones that kill anaerobic bacteria — can mess with the good ol’ gut biome and end up making their conditions worse.

The gist is that killing those anaerobic bacteria allows other, pathogenic bacteria to flourish. University of Michigan medical researchers even likened killing the biome to “causing a hidden form of organ failure.”

ICUs and ERs often measure ‘time-to-antibiotics,’ but the UMich folks think “which antibiotic is given probably matters more than how quickly they are administered.”

Speaking of antibiotics …

Targeted antibiotics are all the rage — both finding/creating new drugs and finding ways to deliver them to the site of an infection, instead of systemically.

The latest comes from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where engineers have combined existing bone cements with a new antibiotic (“VCD-077”) targeted at bone infections. If it works on humans, it could be used to treat infections after, say, hip or knee replacement. The benefit: lower doses of the drug, which would cut side effects and reduce the chance of creating resistant bacteria.

How do chemists waste their time?

By developing “a fully edible sensor showing if frozen food has previously thawed.”

[R]esearchers […] have designed a food-grade device from edible materials, including table salt, red cabbage and beeswax, that lets you know.

Or, you know, they could simply put an ice cube in the package.

Your Life isn’t healthy (and neither are your corn flakes)

The new FDA rules for labeling a product as “healthy” means a bunch of breakfast cereals can no longer use the label because they add too much sugar. Per the FDA, these are off the healthy list:

• Raisin Bran (9g of added sugars)
• Honey Nut Cheerios (12g of added sugars)
• Corn Flakes (300mg of sodium; 4g of added sugars)
• Honey Bunches of Oats, Honey Roasted (8g of added sugars)
• Frosted Mini Wheats (12g of added sugars)
• Life (8g of added sugars)
• Special K (270mg of sodium; 4g of added sugars)

*You can have my Frosted Flakes when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.