Pharmacists now have to tread a fine line with parents who seek health advice on social media. Online parenting groups can foster a distrust of the health profession and so-called Big Pharma, and pharmacists have to take care to gently persuade parents to consider the benefits of evidence-based medicine. Reduced fact-checking and minimal content moderation …read more

Pharmacists know it happens. Patients give prescribed medications to other people, usually people they know well: a sister about to go overseas – “have a few of my sleeping pills”; a friend who has run out of hypertension medication – “here, have a few of mine”; even a colleague who has a nasty infection – …read more

It’s often said every pharmacist remembers their first script. The first prescription they checked – and checked again (and possibly again and again) once they attained full registration. What’s not always remembered is the sense of fear, trepidation or anxiety that often accompanies stepping up into the responsibility and accountability of becoming a registered pharmacist. While the first script may be the most memorable, those early …read more

Pathology tests and diagnostic imaging are a crucial part of healthcare. Test results are important for diagnosis, to track disease progression and to assess the impact of treatments, especially medicines, on the body. Pharmacists are medicine experts, with rapidly expanding expertise in identifying when medicines are unsafe, inappropriate or ineffective. Crucial to determining medicines’ safety …read more