https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles.atomRx Radio - Articles2019-12-03T01:30:00-05:00Rx Radiohttps://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/independent-pharmacies-meet-your-new-social-media-strategy2019-12-03T01:30:00-05:002019-12-03T01:30:07-05:00Independent Pharmacies: Meet your New Social Media StrategyRichard Waithe
As with every industry, social media marketing is beginning to be one of the most important pieces in successful marketing for any business. And with Independent Pharmacies being negatively impacted by DIR fees and competition from big box retailers, marketing to increase business is a key component for survival.
I’ve been realizing more and more pharmacies are creating their social media accounts ready to spread their wings. And with that, I’ve noticed a lot of similarities in the strategy with lots of room for improvement. It seems as though the current social media strategy for most pharmacies are stuck on the traditional advertising strategies. I’m hoping this article will help you switch up your strategy to reach more potential patients and help you engage your patients and build your pharmacy’s brand.
So let’s talk about this new strategy…
Yes, you’re a pharmacy, but now… you’re also the local newspaper.
When patients are scrolling through their social media feeds, like on Instagram or Facebook, they’re seeing all kinds of stuff, including your post about the new CBD product line you have for sale. They’ll then associate that post with your profile picture, and keep scrolling. If they open that app again, and your next post is about some other product you have for sale, over time, this will condition your patients to see the same type of post when ever they see your profile picture in their feed. You’ll also notice that most of these types of posts don’t get very much engagement. And that’s because everyone else on facebook is trying to sell them something. So they get numb to those types of posts.
The goal on social media is to create posts that bring value to your patients and content they’ll engage with, not posts that bring your pharmacy value.
So let’s get back to what I confused you with earlier, how you’re now the local newspaper. Instead of 100% of your social media posts advertising the products you sell, or that you are closing for the upcoming holiday, you need to start posting about your community just like your local newspaper would. It’s time to start posting news about the nearby businesses or events in your area. It’s time to start highlighting the sports teams at a local college or high school’s accomplishments. highlight the members of your team. Not that announcements of products, new services, or pharmacies closures are not important, they just can’t be all you post.
Let’s go through some examples and how this could play out.
Local Businesses
Be it the Pizza Shop, Mechanic, Coffee Shop, or Thrift Store, highlighting a local business near your pharmacy is great for business! Not only is this actually interesting for your patients, the other business may also have their own social media and they may repost your content, exposing your pharmacy to more potential patients. You can talk about the grand opening of the coffee shop to the sale on synthetic oil at the local mechanic, and everything in between.
Community Sports
Little league football? High school basketball? Local water polo, lacrosse, wrestling team? At any given time of the year there is likely some sort of sport going on in your community. Post about it! Follow the news outlets in your community or the schools’ social media accounts to be in the know. People who play these sports likely have parents or other family members. When you highlight them on your social, they’ll likely mention it potentially leading you to a new patient.
Get your Team Involved
Need help with the new strategy? Ask your team if they’d like to be involved. They could help with posting content, or at least sending you, or who ever has access to your social media accounts to post. Another way to get your team involved is by doing quick interviews of them. You could have them tell a piece of trivia every Tuesday or have them talk about their hobbies. No need for expensive equipment to do this either, just use your smartphone. These types of posts drive the relationship building with your patients to help you stand out from the competition.
Let’s Talk ROI
As a business owner, anytime you invest time or money in anything, you have to ask the question, what is the ROI? That’s business 101. But social media marketing, and branding for that matter, does not allow for traditional measurements of ROI. Branding is not the same as selling.
While you can run targeted strategic campaigns during specific periods for specific products and services, it’s just not realistic to traditionally analyze the ROI on your social media strategy. Plus, companies measuring these types of things are usually a team of people specifically dedicated to this. But you’re likely just one person, or part of a small team of other owners, likely asking your staff or a family member to help with your marketing. With that being said, if your mind set is like most owners, wanting to see the immediate ROI on your efforts, you can kiss your social media strategy, any one that you have in place now or in the future, goodbye.
For example, here’s how you think ROI should work: You post on facebook about the Yankee candles you sell, and you tell patients to show them the post and they get 10% off. Then you measure if you sold more candles or not.
But with this new social media strategy in place, here’s how it would actually play out: You post about the the new pizza place that just opened not too far away from the pharmacy. Someone in your town sees that post, and goes to the pizza place. That person tells an employee at the pizza place they saw a post on your Pharmacy’s social media. Then later that week, that employee from the pizza place gets a prescription, but never used a pharmacy before and all of a sudden, you have a brand new patient. But that employee never mentions the interaction with the patient who saw your original post, putting you in a scenario where you were not able to directly measure the ROI of that post. You’re probably thinking wow, what a crazy hypothetical. I get that. But in reality, the more can execute on this strategy, the more chances you give for a hypothetical like this to be a reality. Just keep in mind, it won’t be easy to measure, so stick with it!
Getting Started:
Okay, so you’re ready to execute. Where do you start? First thing you need to do, and this may seem obvious, is to make sure you have access to your social media accounts. Don’t have one? Make one. I’d definitely have a business facebook page, Instagram and Twitter account for your pharmacy. I’m aware some companies that provide social media marketing will charge you and then post everything for you and that’s fine. But to at least try this strategy you’re likely going to have to take over, so make sure you have access.
Next step, start posting. Keep in mind that posting doesn’t have to be all original content you create. Sharing other people’s posts are also part of posting on your social media. For example, when I post on the Rx Radio social media pages, some of the content that is posted on there is original. Take this article for example, your reading this link of an article which I originally created on Medium.com and posted it on my social platforms. But don’t think you need to create a full like article like this one. You can always just share someone else’s original post. Also, your posts don’t always have to include images, links, or videos. It can be just text. A simple “Congrats to the Winter High Water Polo team” would do.
Other than getting over the ROI thing, another hard thing to take in about this new strategy is that it is difficult to outsource. While it is attractive to hope someone else can do this for you, it’s only you or your local team who are the best to post about what is happening in your community. And I know that poses a challenge, where would you find the time? Just start slow, and once you get used to it, it’ll start to come natural, become easier, and before you know it, your pharmacy will be posting 10 times a day.
I really hope this was helpful. I think there’s much more one can go through about a social media strategy, but I hope this can at least give you a jump start. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions or want to talk more specifics, I’d love to help.
At VUCA Health, we help independent pharmacies save money on paper and toner with our digital patient education solution. No need to print patient education sheets or med guides with MedsOnCue. Learn more at vucahealth.com/gopaperless.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/the-cost-of-change-if-pharmacists-unionize2019-11-22T22:46:00-05:002019-11-24T23:46:09-05:00The Cost of Change if Pharmacists UnionizeRichard Waithe
To be quite literal, how much would it cost for real change?
As pharmacists continue to be frustrated about the current state of the industry, one of the common, immediate outbursts of frustration to help fix and protect our profession is a call to unionize. I see a lot of comments comparing our profession to other industries and how they wouldn’t allow this to happen to them. Comments like, “The AMA would never let (insert problem with the pharmacy industry) happen to physicians,” for example.
Well, this article will not answer the question of whether we should or should not unionize, nor will it create the argument for OR against our profession unionizing. Instead, what I want to do is explore the financial cost of unionizing and provide some perspective on how current pharmacy organizations monetarily stack up against a powerhouse like the AMA.
Show me the money!
What do Jerry Maguire and Lil Wayne have in common? They both have famous roles involving money. Jerry Maguire’s “show me the money” scene and Lil Wayne’s hook on the song “Make it Rain,” are two famous cultural moments involving money, depending on what generation you’re a part of.
If you didn’t know, like every other normal organization, a union requires financial capital to operate. A union’s operating capital usually comes from its members. Money from your paycheck is what would cover those operating expenses. It’s the employees (Pharmacists in our case) part of the union that are usually required to pay dues. And in some cases you are FORCED to pay these dues. How much would these dues actually be, you ask? For nurses, according to the National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, their dues are “2.2 hours of gross base salary every month with a $117 per month dues cap” for any nurse working over 12 hours per week. “Those who work in Right to Work states cannot be required to pay dues as a condition of employment.”
I also looked at the dues for Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD),a union based out of California for physicians and dentists, and according to their website, the UAPD member dues appear to usually be 0.9% of your earnings every month. “Those who are not UAPD members are still required to pay fair share fees to the union. Those fees are deducted by your employer. Those who sign an application to become a UAPD member will pay dues, which are only 0.04% more than the fair share fees that everyone must pay.” The following example was provided on their website:
$5000 in earnings x 0.86% = $43 in Fair Share Fees for non-members $5000 in earnings x 0.90% = $45 in Dues for members Member dues are just $2 more.
0.9% of every paycheck.
If you work 40 hours a week, this translates into 1.44 hours of work per month. The math I did was 0.9% of 40 is .36 hours, times 4 weeks = 1.44 hours a month. Just about one work hour less than the nurse’s union I mentioned.
I did see that there was a local union in the Chicago area that represents pharmacists, but I could not find any information about dues listed on their website. Any who, let’s actually assume pharmacists would look at the above and we come to an agreement that we’ll only pay one hour of our salary per month. We’ll get back to this math later.
To be clear, I’m no union expert or lawyer, I just tried to find the closest example to our profession and go by what they had listed as public information.
A Team Effort.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were a little over 300,000 pharmacists in 2016, likely more now, but let’s say the number is still 300,000 today. If we say they make $50/hour according to the above standards, collectively, pharmacists would spend about $180 million per year in dues.
Plot twist…maybe it’s a little ambitious to ask all pharmacists to pay union fees. And what may be true (I have no evidence of this) is that most pharmacists calling for unionizing are community pharmacists, specifically in retail chains. So let’s look at the number of pharmacists at these chains and see what that would be like if they were forced to pay dues. I’ll try to be a bit conservative here too. Let’s say only pharmacists at CVS and Walgreens are the one’s that would be required to pay dues. According to Wikipedia, that’s a total of 34,000 pharmacists between the two. Again, using our one hour a month at $50/hour that’s $20 million per year. Expand that to the top 5 retail chains, with almost 50,000 pharmacists now contributing, that rises to $30 million in dues. Crazy!
Dun dun dun…another plot twist!!! Independent pharmacy owners want a piece of the action. With 20,000 independent pharmacies, let’s assume we were able to round up 50% of them to chip in, that would pull in another $6 million.
Total Yearly Dues required for chains and indy pharmacists: $36 million.
Total yearly dues required for all pharmacists: $180 million
So, assuming that unions were the action we wanted to take, the above shows what we’d collectively have to pay, actual amount varying on how many of us chip in.
Current Currency.
Seeing that we’d have to pay millions of dollars in dues, let’s take a look and compare that to what we’re currently providing organizations already in place that we’d expect to advocate and create change on our behalf. In doing some quick research on google, I was only able to find public financials from APhA. I was not able to find NACDS’s or NCPA’s, and then I just gave up on searching because discussing APhA’s financials should fit the needs of this discussion. But if you can find those other reports, please reach out to me! My contact info will be at the end of the article.
“The APhA Political Action Committee (APhA–PAC) is an important tool in APhA’s efforts to advocate on behalf of the pharmacy profession before the federal government. The APhA–PAC raised more than $110,000 in 2018 — the first time we have raised six figures in one year, and an increase of over $30,000 from 2017 and over $60,000 from 2016.”
So, they received $100k for the APhA-PAC. What about membership dues? Membership dues were $4,146,349 in 2018 and $4,142,736 in 2017. Yup, that’s right, a whole $3,613 dollar difference from one year to the next. But, that’s a whole other conversation. Looking at the rest of their financials, turns out their total total revenue is $34,989,119 with total expenses of $34,565,617. For simplicity, let’s assume it will cost the organization $40 million to operate.
Remember what I kicked off the article with? How some will compare our actions, or lack thereof, to the AMA? Comments like, “Why can’t we be more the AMA and get things done with legislation?” Well, I hope you’re sitting down.
You know how I mentioned above our PAC only raised about $100k, the AMA’s PAC, called AMPAC, “raised a combined $2.2 million dollars during the 2018 election cycle.” Any math will show you that’s WAY more than us.
What about the AMA’s dues? “The number of dues paying members increased 3.4 percent in 2018, and total membership increased 2.8 percent in 2018 as compared to 1.2 percent in 2017.” APhA dues increased by like .08%, these numbers aren’t exactly apples to apples to compare but I think it is quite telling. More importantly, “gross dues revenue was $36.5 million,” compared to APhA’s $4.1 million.
As a side note, I’d encourage you to go to the AMPAC website to read more about how the organization operates and drives political change for their profession. Because I think a lot of what PACs can do for our profession are not usually clear, its good to get an idea of what they are doing. Here’s an excerpt:
“AMPAC incorporated valuable feedback from state medical society PACs and local physicians from around the country as it worked to identify candidates that would fit this mold and make for sound investments on behalf of organized medicine. In all, AMPAC contributed $1.4 million in the 2018 cycle that included direct contributions to 291 physician-friendly candidates for the U.S. House and Senate from both political parties (51% to Republicans and 49% to Democrats). These contributions provided more than 600 strategic opportunities for AMA lobbyists, physician leaders and local doctors to attend events and have important one-to-one interactions discussing issues critical to medicine. As the cost of elections continues to spiral ever higher, AMPAC is finding its value-add is our ability to create these opportunities.”
This all makes sense as AMA’s slogan is “Membership Moves Medicine.”
The reason I’m pointing out these financials is because we’re trying to compare ourselves to the AMA when frankly, they have WAY more pull than we do because of the cash they’re able to operate with.
Lesson here is, if you’re going to want action to happen, we’re likely going to have to pay for it.
And before you email me and say, BS, we need a lot more than just money, we need blah blah blah… I get that. But to execute on everything else we need, we need the capital to execute.
To wrap up…
The Call to Action:
With an understanding that to see change, we’re going to have to pay for it, should we work through the process of unionizing? Or should we try to use what we already have in place? Again, I’m not going to present or argue reasons for one or the other, I’m just hoping to paint a clear picture of the expectations and our current reality. I do, however, want to create a call to ACTION. I think every pharmacist that wants to see change should pick one of the following:
Pick an existing organization that either has a plan, or you think can formulate a plan to execute on how you want to change/protect the profession, and donate 1 hour’s worth of your paycheck per month (half of what a union would cost) or
Start doing some research on how unions work and learn both the positives AND the negatives of unionizing. See how that may compare to what an organization could do. Maybe hop on reddit, since it is anonymous and find people who are trying to start one. Just be careful because if you work for a large retail chain, they will NOT be happy and you could risk your reputation and maybe even your job. Also, if you’re choosing this option, start contributing to a savings account that will eventually go to operating costs of said union.
Excited to see what you’ll do.
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
Richard
UPDATE: I was able to find some financials from tax documents via https://www.guidestar.org/ on NCPA and ASHP. Here’s what I found…In 2018, ASHP had $52 million in total revenue and $56 million in operating expenses. Only $6 million of the revenue came from membership dues. NCPA on the other hand, had only about $13 million in revenue in 2017 and $12.9 million in operating expenses, only $3.7 million in revenue from membership dues.
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Connect with me on any of your favorite social media platforms, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the article and wether you agree or disagree with my comments.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/a-pharmacist-s-transition-to-the-other-side2018-11-21T00:41:00-05:002018-11-21T00:41:33-05:00A Pharmacist’s Transition to the Other Side.Richard Waithe
Here’s some things I've learned going from the front lines of community pharmacy to the business side of the industry.
It’s been six months since I started my role with VUCA Health and I wanted to provide some insight to how it’s been going transitioning from a practicing in a community pharmacy to the more business/tech/drug information side of things.
The Jump
Why did I even make this move in the first place? I always knew I wanted to help people, it was truly one of the driving forces to becoming a pharmacist. And while I was having a direct impact on all the patients I took care of, I felt that I’d be able to do more and have a wider impact. And that’s what’s great about being a pharmacist, you can really take your career anywhere, especially as our field continues to innovate. In doing some self reflection, I started to think about how growing up, I was always fascinated by the new ways society began to communicate with each other. Remember two-way pagers? Nextel walkie talkies?! The sidekick? Omg, the sidekick was literally my favorite gadget of all time pre 2007. With a passion for communication, connecting with others, and a drive to have an impact on improving patients health outcomes, it started to become clear that patient engagement is where things were headed for me.
Speed of Innovation
Diving into this role, I began meeting with a lot of decision makers for both small and large healthcare organizations. What was interesting to learn was the reasoning behind the speed of innovation, or lack thereof. Previous to my current role, I mainly worked on the front lines as a community pharmacist for large organizations like Publix and CVS. At the time, I always thought there was lack of innovation because of corporate not wanting to take risks, or maybe they just didn’t care to even try. But, as I get to talk with these leaders and understand what’s important to them, lack of compassion and innovation is not why they’ve made it to where they are. On the contrary, these individuals love innovation and truly do care about the patients their companies serve. What I’m realizing the reasons for what appears to be lack of innovation is the barriers of bureaucracy needed to overcome implementing something new. In addition, sometimes their company’s culture demand a proven ROI for any new initiatives, an ROI that’s never been tested or even well established. Which, makes sense, after all, it is a business. So I get it. I do think (mostly hope) large organizations will start to realize that sometimes a new innovation or initiative just may be the right thing to do.
Keeping the Clinical Sword Sharp
Another thing that was surprising to me was the difficulty it is to keep up clinically. Due to the nature of my company, I’m fairly keen on new approvals and safety warnings that are announced by the FDA. But, aside from a measly 30 hour CE requirement everytwoyears, I’m not getting a lot of clinical exposure. I really have to go out of my way to try to keep up (ThanksCorConsult Rx). And even with that, it’s much different when you’re keeping your clinical sword sharp because someone’s life is at stake. But when that isn’t happening day to day, it’s more difficult.
Underestimating Seniors
Being that my company provides medication education videos through a digital platform, I often get a lot of push back from healthcare providers. They’ll say things like, “but my patients don’t use technology,” or “they’re not on social media.” What I’m seeing is a clear underestimation of people above the age of 50 using technology. If we took a look at some numbers, we’ll see that it’s actually the opposite. Seniors are on social media and are using technology. AccordingAARP, 7 in 10 adults above the age of 50 own smart phones, and 4 in 10 own tablets. According to thePew Research Center, in people between the ages of 50 and 64, 65% of them use Facebook, and 68% of them use YouTube. Sixty Eight!!!! The number lowers a bit when they looked at people above the age of 65, it dropped to around 40% and 41% of them using both YouTube and Facebook, respectively. But, that’s still significant.
But okay, fine…since it’s not 100% of seniors using these platforms, let’s go with “they’re not using it.” They say, give a man a fish, feed him for a day…you know the rest. I think we should apply this line of thinking to helping our patients. How about we start taking the time to show our patients how to use technology? As healthcare providers, we know for a fact health literacy is a huge problem and has a significant impact on health outcomes. What if they key to health literacy is, well, actually, tech literacy? Because well, you know the saying, send a patient a YouTube link, teach them about ProAir, show them how to use YouTube, lower ER visits due to asthma related complications. (Okay, maybe you didn’t know that one)
Lack of structure
If you’ve heard any of my recentRx Radiopodcast episodes from the Magellan Rx Health series, you would’ve noticed the common theme of their pharmacist’s day to day never being the same. Well, that is no different from what my current role is like. Which is interesting because some people actually go into pharmacy because they like structure or consistency in their work and careers. However, one of the main reasons I love what I do is because it’s the exact opposite. My days are always different and because of the small size of my company, I wear many hats and can innovate at the speed that only time can constrain.
I think pharmacists (and students) that feel like they want to be able to have more of an impact should consider taking some time for self reflection. Is there a hidden passion you never knew you could mix with pharmacy? Is there a specific disease state that always stuck out to you? Believe or not, no matter where you are in your journey, you could be come the next Asthma expert, or what ever it is that you’re passionate about. What’s stopping you?
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
-Richard
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Richard Waithe, PharmD | Richard@vucahealth.com
It would mean a lot if you shared this article on your favorite social media platform. ❤
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-flu-treatment-xofluza2018-10-26T01:23:00-04:002018-10-26T01:23:28-04:00What you need to know about the new flu treatment Xofluza.Richard Waithe
It’s been almost 20 years to the month since Tamiflu (received FDA approval in Oct 1999) has been approved but it has officially met its match. We now have a new contender, Xofluza. As you’ll likely get many questions about it, I just wanted to give you some quick basics on what you need to know.
Generic name: baloxavir marboxil
It has a different MOA than Tamiflu, but still only works to shorten symptoms and reduce complications
It’s just a single dose, compared to the 5 day treatments with Tamiflu
It’ll cost:~$150 (Coupons for $30 and $90 may be available)
Only indicated for people 12 and up and must be given within 48 hours of onset of symptoms
There was no difference in the time to alleviation of symptoms between subjects who received Xofluza and those who received the other flu treatment, e.g. Tamiflu
Most common side effects are diarrhea and bronchitis
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
-Richard
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Richard Waithe, PharmD | Richard@vucahealth.com
It would mean a lot if you shared this article on your favorite social media platform. ❤
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/a-few-new-things-in-pharmacy2018-09-03T00:22:00-04:002018-09-03T00:22:10-04:00A Few New Things in Pharmacy.Richard Waithe
I had the pleasure of attending two pharmacy conferences over the last two weeks and wow! I couldn’t be more excited about the future. I saw it all, from gene therapy to digital marketing to pick up kiosks. Yes, many are very worried about what’s to come. There’s so many changes in healthcare now-a-days so I can completely understand the fear of the uncertain. But there really is so much to be excited about. I want to share some take-a-ways of some recent experiences.
Gene Therapy
It all started with a talk by Andrew Scharenberg, the Chief Scientific Officer of Casebia Therapeutics. He gave those in attendance at the Magellan Rx Specialty Summit a brief overview of gene therapy and what they’re doing to treat and cure diseases. He specifically talked about a retinal treatment that costs up to $850K per year. Yup, you read that right. $850,000. In understanding the way they use a vector from a virus to infiltrate the center of a cell and change its genes, I came to a wild, but possible revelation. When this technology hits scale, our life spans are going to be greatly increased. The way they are treating diseases are so out of this world it’s ridiculous. And it’s only just begun. However, there are large hurdles here because the structure of these drugs are so complex, they actually make biologics look like child’s play. But, these medications are fundamentally approaching the way we treat diseases a completely different way. These treatments are going straight to the source of the pathology. It’s crazy to think about, but it’s a really exciting time. I hope to see more pharmacists involved and leading the way in helping people manage their newly invented gene therapies.
That day ended with a talk by Dr. Bruce Levine, a professor in cancer gene therapy where he helped work on a revolutionary treatment called T-cell therapy to treat leukemia. His story spoke of how they used an HIV virus to make sure a therapy got to the cells it needed to treat (or kill). It’s important to note that because of the design of the therapy, even though using the HIV virus, it wasn’t able to actually cause HIV. The explanation of that is WAY out of the scope of this article (and my clinical expertise). The patient in his story was of Emily Whitehead and the craziest surprise was that her and her family were actually in the crowd! It was awesome hearing first hand from the family the impact this therapy had on her and the livelihood of her family. The reason I think this story is important is because there are so many new treatments that are coming out in all types of areas and I think pharmacists need to be ready to support these new advancements in medications and prepared to be an expert in therapy management.
Innovation: Amazon and Facebook
That was the bulk of day one. The next day I stayed for a talk by an Amazon executive. He focused more on leadership and organizations that innovate. He went into the culture of Amazon and the environment they’ve built with innovation. What really stuck out was that he had mentioned that Amazon rewards innovation, even if it fails. They are not scared to try new things and of those things that do fail, they’re usually some great lessons learned. For example, the Amazon Fire Phone was considered a failure, but what came out of it was some of the tech behind Amazon’s Echo. Fostering the innovative culture not only as an individual, but as an organization, is what will make for success.
Now onto my second conference, this one kicked off with a talk by Facebook. The speaker gave an overview of the reach and targeting abilities of Facebook, which is pretty remarkable. Facebook has so much information about individuals, it makes targeting individuals one of the easiest in the world. What I thought was interesting was how behind some of the retailers were in understanding this. However, as they start to catch on, we’ll start to see a huge focus on digital media and marketing VERY soon.
Changes in Prescriptions
Surescripts, a leader in e-prescribing, had a really good presentation. They spoke about all the changes coming to e-prescribing requirements and a few other things they were working on. Two things of particular interest stuck out to me. The first one being the eventual use of electronic transfers. If you’ve ever worked in a pharmacy, you dreaded transferring prescriptions to other pharmacies. It’s such a painful process, especially if it’s more than one prescription that needs to be transferred. But, great news! Surescripts will soon make it possible for prescriptions to be transferred electronically to other pharmacies. #Win
The other thing that was pretty awesome that they’re working on is actually a process that occurs before a prescription is even sent to the pharmacy. In the coming years, when a prescriber writes a prescription for a patient, Surescripts will now have a system in place to show the prescriber how much the medication will cost a patient. And not only will the prescriber get the price and benefits information, they’ll also be able to see what the therapeutic alternatives are and their respective prices as well. This is intended to allow prescribers to have conversations with the patient and make an informed decision on which therapy to prescribe. This will also let the prescriber know if a prior authorization (PA) is required. What I’m wondering is, will prescribers welcome this process into their workflow? Or will they still want others healthcare professionals like PAs, Nurses, and pharmacists to intervene and help make a clinical recommendation?
The second conference was one of the largest gatherings of retailers I had ever seen, called NACDS Total Store Expo, and it was MASSIVE. Easily one of the largest number of exhibitors I’ve seen at a conference. What was quite interesting though is that this conference didn’t have a lot of foot traffic going from booth to booth. Instead, it was an appointment heavy event. Most of the booths had meeting spaces and could have upwards of 20 meetings a day scheduled at their booth.
Pharmacy Kiosks
In walking the trade show floor, I found two companies in particular that really stuck out. The first one was MedAvail (www.medavail.com) a company that created a kiosk where patients can come pick up their medications. However, it’s not as straight forward as I thought it would be. Currently, the machine actually facilitates the final verification of product to be dispensed when the patient is at the kiosk. I don’t know exactly what’s going on inside the machine, but It also seemed like the label didn’t even get put onto the box that was dispensed up until this point. When using the kiosk, If it’s the first fill of a medication, the patient will be required to video chat with the pharmacist. If it’s a refill, the patient will have the option to video chat with a pharmacist. But, this is a very limiting process, especially if the pharmacist is tied up with other tasks. I could see huge lines being formed behind these things because of it. I’m sure there’s some legal reasoning behind this, but for now, it seems like it may cause more delays in workflow than help. When this kiosk can get to a point where it acts as a true pick up station AFTER the medication has been verified and labeled, that is when I can truly see the benefits of having these at pharmacies. Maybe pharmacies can allow for refills only to be stored inside them and have new scripts still be required to be dispensed the “traditional” way.
I posted an image of the kiosk on social media and, as expected, received a lot of negative comments about it. The main concern was this kiosk will be replacing the pharmacist. But in its current form, this machine is just intended to replace the clerical work of dispensing a medication. So what are we defending here? The need for us to continue to be able to be a cashier face to face? In fact, in that act alone, we’re just a highly paid cashier. We need to really evaluate what it is that we’re doing at work as a “Pharmacist.” For example, when we are verifying a prescription, we are just matching words, literally making sure it says Lisinopril 10 mg on the left side and that matches to Lisinopril 10 mg on the right side and boom, verified! What should be much more concerning to think about is the program/software that gets developed to match words 10x more accurately and faster than a human Pharmacist’s eyes can. That’s when uproar would be a bit more justified, not by creating a kiosk where a patient can pick up their medication. But, even the process of verifying is not something we necessarily went to school for. Think about it, what year in pharmacy school did we take a class on verifying? In evaluating the majority of “Pharmacist” work we do day to day, we really need to start displaying our training and expertise to justify the need for $100K+ in salary. Just because we have student loans doesn’t mean people owe us money. We need to make sure our worth is being utilized, not just recognized. And will all this talk about a kiosk, who knows, this may be leapfrogged in the new world of PillPack and medications being delivered to the home. This is actually a great segue into the next company that caught my attention.
At Home Monitoring
One of the other companies that caught my attention is a company is calledLife 365. They are making it easy to monitor certain health conditions in the patient’s home, measures like blood glucose, pulse, blood pressure. They’re allowing values to be easily monitored by a healthcare provider allowing them the ability to take real-time action. What does that have to do with the above paragraph? Well, pharmacists are in a great position to be the healthcare professional to really have an impact here. Not only can we help monitor the patients’ conditions at home, we can be there to answer any questions they may have and also recommend changes to therapy based on results.
Drug Information
The last thing I wanted to mention is that there was a large presence of drug information companies at this conference. What’s interesting to think about is every pharmacy and/or healthcare company usually needs to have a drug resource. And there isn’t many of these companies out there but their products offerings can be endless and I’m sure can always be made better. Drug information is a solid niche to get into. It is away from patient care, but a field many can be excited about.
All in all, it was an eventful few weeks for me. I learned so many new things and had a lot of fun experiences. I hope this recap brought some value and would love to hear your thoughts.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/pharmacists-in-barbershops2018-08-22T00:00:00-04:002018-08-22T00:00:00-04:00Pharmacists in Barbershops!?Richard Waithe
A Study of Blood-Pressure Reduction in Black Barbershops
When I first saw the headlines of this trial I thought, hmm. Interesting. I’m a pharmacist, I’m colored,andI go to barbershops. Briefly skimming through, I read that it was a funded project and jokingly I thought, wow, this got funded? I would have done this for free, tomorrow. But, after reading the full article, this was indeed a pretty well designed study of interventions for blood pressure on African Americans.
Some details.
The study consisted of about 50 barber shops and had around 300 participants enrolled. Some barbershops had pharmacists intervene with blood pressure management and the other barbershops only had the barbers encourage the participants to better manage their blood pressure. With pharmacists interventions, about 60% of participants reached the set target blood pressure vs only 11% of those who only had their barber’s encouragement to follow up with their primary care providers with no pharmacist intervention.
Why was this study important?
Black males are highest in one of the worst statistics in hypertension (high blood pressure), and that’s rate of death. So, to try to attack this issue at barbershops, which are often a place of comfort, fun, emotions, and brotherhood in the black community, is pretty brilliant.
However, the results of the trial aren’t shocking. As the authors point out, there have been many trials demonstrating the effectiveness of pharmacist intervention on blood pressure, they just felt African Americans weren't represented well in those trials. One interesting thing to note is that the protocol for the initial treatment was quite aggressive. For every participant who they deemed needed medication therapy, Pharmacists prescribed two blood pressure medications off the bat!
My take away.
An important lesson from this trial which the authors also mentioned is that the results could have heavily influenced by the involvement of the barbers themselves. I do wonder if this is a missing element in getting people bought into taking control of their health. Healthcare providers may need to start teaming up with leaders/influencers closest to specific patient populations to better improve health outcomes.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/prescription-meds-the-new-loaf-of-bread2018-08-19T12:49:00-04:002018-08-19T12:49:15-04:00Prescription Meds: The New Loaf of Bread?Richard Waithe
It’s no surprise that people want to get the best deal. And with today’s advancement in tech and social media, it has never been easier to find the best prices for a desired product. But, what does this have to do with pharmacy? Well, everything. I truly believe a consumer’s purchasing behavior of prescription medication is the now the same as buying a loaf of bread.
It’s why Amazon's PillPack is going to be super successful in the pharmacy industry. Consumers today do not care about how they get their prescription medications as much as they used to. They don’t care which pharmacy it’s from. They don’t care who’s filling it or which pharmacist is doing a clinical check, the check to make sure a medication is what’s best for a patient. In general*, people just want to pick up their prescriptions in a way that’s most convenient and at the best price.
*There are outliers, like the consumer who’ll never fill a medication at a certain pharmacy because of their terrible experience. There’s also the super loyal patient that borderline stalks their pharmacist if they switch to a competitor across the street because of the great care and service provided said pharmacist provided.
A little context on where I’m coming from.
I live and practice community pharmacy in Miami, FL. And I am giving my thoughts based on my experience from working at 3 different retail companies in the Broward County area all the way down to Key West, FL. Loyalty to a single pharmacy has become rare. It may be different in a small town where they have less pharmacy options available. If it is, please let me know, I’m really curious as to how it would contrast to a busy city like Miami so I’d love to hear from you.
Yes, some people may decide to fill at your particular pharmacy because you know their name and provide good service, but, for the most part, once your price changes, or they begin to have to wait a bit longer to get their medications, there’s a high possibility they’ll be inquiring next door. And while I don’t want to take away from all the talented pharmacists out there who really drive business because of their personal relationship or leadership skills, I really think this is the truth.
Is this a problem or is it awesome?
Well, for the patient (consumer), it seems awesome. They can choose to get their medications as conveniently as possible, and better yet, they can save money by literally walking across the street! But, for pharmacies, their employees, and patient safety, not so much.
Because of the commoditization of dispensing medications (and some other reasons) pharmacies are now barely making profits off of medications slimming profit margins. To account for this, pharmacies are now being forced to create other sources of revenue to make up for loss profits on filling prescriptions. But, it’s not going so well. Actually, on paper, it is. Profits are coming from all sides on paper. But in the trenches, day to day at the pharmacy, it’s not. It has made for an environment of increased workload for pharmacy teams with what feels like less technician labor hours due to cutting of costs. And because of the workload, it has now led to less relationship building between pharmacists and their patients, and decreasing quality of care because pharmacists now just don’t have the time anymore.
The biggest problem though, is that people are now getting medications from multiple pharmacies. A pharmacist can only run an effective clinical drug-drug interaction check if that patient fills all their medications with that pharmacy or is using medical insurance to pay for the prescriptions. But if a patient is paying out of pocket at multiple pharmacies, pharmacists can never properly address the potential for dangerous drug interactions.
How will pharmacies truly succeed in the future? How they adapt to make better profits to continue to operate effectively while simultaneously have employees who actually enjoy working there? I have no idea. Ok jk, I have a few ideas that I’ll leave for another article. But, what I can say now is, it won’t be off of the profits of selling bread…or dispensing medications.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/podcasting-101-how-i-started-with-zero-experience2018-08-19T12:39:00-04:002018-08-19T12:42:24-04:00Podcasting 101 - How I Started with Zero ExperienceRichard Waithe
Irecently found myself wanting to start a podcast, but there was one problem, I’m a pharmacist. Previously, I’ve had zero experience in podcast production. But, I’m now 60+ episodes in with over 10k listens between two podcasts on SoundCloud and thought I’d share how and what I did to get to this point. It’s been countless hours of research and a couple hundred dollars to get here. But I’m hoping this article would save you a lot of time (and money) and get you ahead of the curve if you’re interested in starting your own podcast.
When I started out, I wasn't sure if podcasting was something I was going to enjoy or do for more than a month. So I started with bare minimum. It’s now been 8 months since I started upgraded to some new thing, but I’ll mention things I started with in addition to what I use now. Oh, and there’ll be links included!
Choose a Mic.
When I first started, I decided to use theYeti Microphone.It was super convenient and had awesome reviews on Amazon. It comes in multiple colors (I went with the white). It just plugged right into my laptop via USB I was in business! The audio quality was surprisingly pretty good! I recorded my first 10 podcast episodes on it. But, with that podcast having a co-host and a growing listener base, I found myself wanting more than just “pretty good” audio quality. So, I upgraded to twoAudio-Technica AT2005USB microphones so each person could have their own microphone.
Which ever mic you choose, if you want to optimize your audio quality you can add apop filterand/or ashock mountto your set up. Pop filters help with decreasing the strong sounds of letters P or B from a microphone. It can also minimize the sound of normal breathing onto the microphone. A shock mount is great if your microphone istable mounted. It suspends the microphone to minimize sounds the mic could pick up from hitting the table or typing on a computer. By the way, the linked shock mount will fit the aforementioned Audio-Technica.
Get a Mixer
When deciding each host needed their own microphone, I learned the hard way that you cannot just use two USB microphones and plug both of them into your computer. So, after unboxing my new, at this point second, Yeti microphone, I quickly realized there was no way to get my computer to read two USB microphones and record audio. Hence the need for a mixer.
A mixer (or other audio interface) is imperative if you plan to record quality multiple voice recordings, including phone calls, to create one podcast recording. If you wanted to, you could record two people with one microphone (how I started) or even put your phone on speaker and record your voice and theirs (from the phone’s speaker) into one mic. But the quality from these situation are likely be very poor. After hours of research and understanding the clear need for a mixer, I decided to go with theBehringer Xenyx Q802.It was less than $90 and it too had great reviews. Plus, there was a lot of tutorials on YouTube on how to set it up. This was key since mixers look super intimidating, but it actually wasn’t that hard to learn how to set it up.
You could also get anaudio interfaceinstead of a mixer. But, the cool thing about having a mixer vs an audio interface is that I can control a lot of the audio quality that is actually being recorded. This is in contrast to an audio interface or an expensive voice recorder because, when you record with these, you have to do a lot of editingafteryou record the audio. But with the mixer, I can adjust the quality of audio being recordedbeforeI even hit the record button. This was extremely important to me because it saves me time in editing audio later.
Pick Headphones
One of the best practices of podcasting include using quality studio headphones while recording to be able to adjust audio in real time as necessary. However, for all of my in-person podcasts I don’t like to use headphones. I prefer the natural feeling of the conversation without something on my head. But, I’d highly recommend you listen to your audio as you record to ensure you can minimize and address background noises that you may not know your microphone is picking up. So I went with theSony MDR7506.Again, great reviews and it was under $100. No need to spend $300+ on a pair of Beats.
Consider Cords for Calls
There are a few cords you’ll need, in addition to what comes with mention products, if you plan to take phone calls for your podcast. Unfortunately, it is the year 2017 and I’ve never needed a Radio Shack more in my life. After wondering why I didn’t do more to save that company before they filed for bankruptcy, I made a trip to my local Sam Ash and found out there are two cords that are necessary to record phone calls for a podcast. One of them they had in store and one was only available online. But to make it easier for you I provided links from Amazon for both. There are other ways of recording calls, but I found the method using these cords to be the easiest.
You’ll needthis cordto be able to connect either your computer or cell phone to a mixer to be able to properly record your guest’s audio. This cord will serve as the “microphone” for your their audio into the mixer. You’ll also needthis adapterspecifically for cell phone calls. It’s not needed for calls from a computer like if you’re using Google Voice. Taking calls was one of the harder things to figure out on this journey, so if you’re interested in getting full details email or DM me on any of my social media profiles listed below.
Find Storage
Creating a podcast can be take up a lot of space on your computer, especially if you’re recording video for some form of vlog in addition to your podcast. So, it may be a good idea to invest in an external hard drive. I went with theWD 1TB My Passport External Hard Drivebecause… you guessed it, it has great reviews and it was under $100! It works on both Macs and PCs. This model also has the updated USB 3.0 and it comes in different colors.
Download Recording Software
You’ll need a program to record your audio. My personal preference, being a mac owner, is Garage Band. I also use iMovie to edit my episodes because it’s great for features like background noise reduction and I like the way I can edit the audio’s volume, all things I’m sure you can do with Garage Band but I just think it’s easier to do it in iMovie. I’ve found these programs to be extremely user friendly, however, unlike other editing platforms, it may have some limitations if you plan to do advanced audio editing.
Upload to a Platform
Finally, you’ll need to upload your audio files onto a platform that will provide you with an RSS feed. An RSS feed is basically the link that streams your podcast’s audio from the source. I upload all of my episodes to SoundCloud and then use the RSS feed from there to stream it to iTunes and Google Play.
I hope this helps someone who’s been thinking about doing their own podcast! Please feel free to reach out to me and let me know if I could help you to get your podcast up and running.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/pharmacist-vs-alexa2018-08-19T12:33:00-04:002018-08-19T12:34:34-04:00Pharmacist vs AlexaRichard Waithe
I’ve been dabbling with the idea of whether Alexa, or any other of the new voice devices, is going to replace the Pharmacist or not. And I’ve found that, in theory, they can. But will they be able to pull it off?
As a Pharmacist working in a community pharmacy, people ask me lot of very different questions…
“Where’s the Tylenol?”
“How do I treat a burn?”
“My mom, Mrs. Smith, has diabetes, history of a stroke, is allergic to penicillin, and she’s congested, what can I give her?”
As you can see, some questions can be simple, but some can be fairly complex and specific. So, is this something Alexa could handle? Well, it depends.
Wait…Who is Alexa?
If you know what Alexa is, please proceed to the next section.If you don’t, I’ll briefly try to explain as best as I can, but if you want more details pleaseclick here.
Amazon has created a series of devices, like theEcho,Echo Dot, andEcho Show, that can provide information or entertainment just by responding to voice commands like “Alexa, what’s the weather like today?” Very similar to using Siri on the iPhone (sorry Android lovers). Alexa already has built in capabilities and functions, but there’s also a way to add voice apps, which Amazon calls “skills,” that you can enable on your device. Enabling a skill is synonymous to downloading an app from the app store on your smartphone. Google and Microsoft have similar competing voice devices, but Alexa and its’ skills are what we’ll discuss as the device that can replace the Pharmacist or not.
Relationship Status: It’s Complicated
In building my first Alexa Skill,Phred Bot, a voice app to help healthcare professionals learn the top 200 most commonly prescribed drugs, I learned the basics of voice design and tasted what the future of voice interactions may be like. I quickly realized that yes, we can program Alexa to answer simple questions and maybe even slightly tougher ones. But for the more complex questions, like the example above about Mrs. Smith, it ispossibleto create a skill to handle a question this complicated…but unlikely.
Mission Impossible
The way these skills are programmed is simple, in terms of logic that is, the coding could get extremely difficult. You’d program Alexa to recognize questions asked by users such as, “how do I treat a burn,” and then program the skill to have Alexa respond with a specific answer. Simple enough, right? Well, imagine the amount of questions that a Pharmacist could be asked. That’s a lot of questions to program, and that’s assuming there’s no need to ask any follow up or clarification questions to the user. Therefore, due to the complex nature of these types of interactions, my fellow Pharmacists, you can take a breather. Alexa won’t be replacing us anytime soon. In addition, there is a concern about private health information being transmitted through these devices and skills which can be aHIPAAviolation if used incorrectly. Though, I’m confident Amazon is already working on ensuring HIPAA compliance to allow for healthcare to move quickly onto the platform.
Being a Pharmacist is so much more than just having information. It’s why Google or the entire internet as a whole hasn’t replaced us yet. Not only do we have to make a lot of decisions that require analysis, but we also need to have an ability to have an influence on the behavior of our patients. We can give all the right advice to a patient, but a lot of times convincing the patient that we know what’s best for their situation, and not their cousin Sally’s recommendation, is sometimes half the battle. So, the easy stuff we could outsource to these new voice devices. But the hard questions? Let’s leave that up to the humans, Alexa.
I am not blind to the fact that technology is advancing to where our clinical knowledge may be replicated by AI one day, so there will come a time where this will be a real concern for Pharmacists. However, I’m confident that by then we’ll have innovated enough to still be relevant and prove the intangible value that pharmacists can bring to the healthcare team.
Getting Started
Healthcare providers should get serious about the emerging voice space and really start using the technology. We need to start viewing devices like Amazon’s Echo as more of a tool and less of a threat. If you haven’t yet, you should start thinking about getting a device and start familiarizing yourself with how they work. Or, at a bare minimum, start watching YouTube videos and get up to speed on where society is moving towards with voice applications.
Any Ideas?
I hope to build a skill that’ll function along the lines of, “hey Alexa, ask the Pharmacist how to treat allergies.” And my recommended treatment would then be spoken to the user by Alexa. It’ll be intended to replicate a simple Google search for the same question. But, if that consumer has already tried two or three different things to treat allergies, things could get tricky. Ideally, there would be a function to identify this situation and get the user connected to a Pharmacist to help provide a better solution. So, if any developers are interested, reach out to me. I would love to get this built sooner than later. What ideas do you have?
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/tell-me-about-yourself2018-08-19T12:28:00-04:002018-08-19T12:30:43-04:00Tell Me About Yourself…Richard Waithe
This has to be one of the most underutilized interview/networking question ever. It’s that question we’re always prepared for, that moment we deploy our over practiced elevator pitch.
I want to help people realize that when we’re asked “tell me about yourself,” we are not taking full advantage of this opportunity. This question can give you the ability to connect and develop a relationship with an individual who can either directly provide you with a life changing career opportunity or connect you with someone who can.
Don’t Sell, Connect
People often see this as a great way to sell themselves. People see it as an important opportunity to show all the leadership experience they have and who they’ve worked with. But there is a much better way to make the most of answering this question. And that’s by creating a trueunrelatedconnection.
Unrelated connection? Yes. Whether you're in finance or pharmacy, if someone asks you this question, try connecting on something not related to finance or pharmacy, respectively. It’ll be a great way to make yourself memorable.
How? Easy.
I am not saying to redo your entire elevator pitch, but next time you’re preparing to deploy it, try ending it with a random unrelated hobby or fact about yourself. I guarantee you, it will help you make a more influential connection, a connection that will get you results.
For example, I love to snowboard. I’ve visited a different mountain every winter for the past 10 years. So every time someone asks me, “Tell my about yourself” after my usual, I went to school here, and worked there, and mentored so and so, I always end with my love for snowboarding. And one of two things usually happens. Either 1) that person has gone skiing/snowboarding before and will then proceed to share their own experience; or 2) they’ll talk about how they’ve always thought about going but never actually went, which will then lead to more questions about how hard it is and should they ski or snowboard first, etc.
So, start taking more advantage of this question and start building better relationships with people. But before you go. Quick question. Have you ever gone snowboarding?
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/forget-motivational-interviewing-find-common-ground2018-08-19T12:19:00-04:002018-08-19T12:19:47-04:00Forget Motivational Interviewing, Find Common Ground.Richard Waithe
Okay, maybe don’t throw your motivational interviewing (MI) techniques out the window, but here’s something to add. I know MI is an important tool for influencing behaviors, but you can really take this a step further by building connections with your patients.
I recently spoke about how important it is to build connections with other healthcare professionals for bettering patient care and advancing your career, but we should also look to do this with our patients. Our ability to create connections and build relationships to influence behaviors are keys to our success as a healthcare professionals to get our patients to be more healthy.
Start by asking your patients about their day, see if you can find out what their hobbies are, their passions, and start looking for ways to connect. For example, one of my patients once paid with a Disney themed credit card and, being an Annual Passholder for Disney, we now have a relationship built around conversations regarding Disney.
Building these connections can lead to building trust and even a sense of accountability for patients which can better influence healthy behaviors.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/the-answer-to-every-interview-question2018-08-19T12:15:00-04:002019-11-18T21:49:04-05:00The Answer to Every Interview QuestionRichard Waithe
When I was on the job search, I took my research on how to interview pretty seriously. I wasn’t taking any chances and knew that once I was invited for an interview, I’d need to give myself the best shot at getting the position. I did so much research on interviewing I was able to get it down to a science. In this article, I’ll share the key insights and methods I created to be able to crush any interview.
During the interview prep, there were some questions I had to blatantly memorize. And for the rest, I developed methods to answering them. I’ll start with talking about the behavioral questions since those are the hardest. These are the “Tell me about a time when…” questions. After that, I’ll briefly talk about answering common, ethical, and then the off the wall questions.
Answering Behavioral Questions
Although there can be an infinite amount of interview questions, especially the behavioral ones, there are only a certain number of core concepts behavioral interview questions could answer. Every one of these questions can be answered with a very specific core principal, and luckily, there aren't many of them. I organized these principals into 3 sets.
If you develop a few stories from your life experiences for each set, you’d then be unstoppable in an interview. With a library of these stories to match the sets, the only hard part of the interview becomes trying to decide what core principal the interviewer is looking for when a question is asked, or which of your stories best applies. This then creates a situation where answering an interview question almost becomes like solving a puzzle. Once, you’ve identified what the question is asking, you just insert the correct story from a set that fits.
Well designed interview questions aim to get qualities from multiple sets. However, having 2 stories per sets is ideal incase an interview questions does point to the same set. To start, let’s go through the sets, then I’ll provide a few examples on how it could work.
Remember when coming up with these stories, the interviewer likely asks “Tell me about a time when…” so it should be answered like a story.
The Sets
You should aim to have aminimumof two stories from each set. This should be enough to get you through almost every interview.
Set 1 — Internal Leadership
Reactiveness
Can you demonstrate perseverance and/or adaptability?
Accountability
Can you show an ability to take responsibility for performance and your or your team’s actions?
Do you keep your word on commitments?
Fearless
Do you take risks and are you not scared to try new things or implement new ideas?
Motivated
A story can demonstrate your motivation and drive in completing a task or in your career
Set 2 — External Leadership
Working With Others
How well do you work with a group of people, how well do you get your superiors to work on an idea you have?
How do you deal with conflicts with other people and deal with different points of view?
Relates well to others
How well do you connect with people from different backgrounds and create and maintain these relationships?
Communication
How well can you listen to others and express empathy?
How can you tailor messages to be deliverable to targeted audiences?
How well do you do at public speaking?
Managerial/Feedback
Have you ever provided others with challenging tasks/projects and effectively provide feedback
Are you able to notice when expectations are not being met?
Inspirational
Can you create excitement for people around a task or a project?
How well can you get buy in from people?
Set 3 — Future/Vision Leadership
Productivity/Organization
Have you ever discovered ways to streamline or improve processes?
How do you ensure current best practices are understood and being followed?
Execution
Can you manage resources, time and remain focus on completing objectives using prioritization?
How do you address critical issues?
Problem Solving and Strategy
How do you obtains relevant data, ideas, and opinions to make decisions?
How well can you create ideas and direction to achieve objectives?
Innovation
Are you always learning, generating new ideas, and bringing new approaches to old tasks?
Here are some examples of the process in action:
Question 1 — “Tell me about a time you made a mistake.” Looking for: Accountability, Answer would be pulled from set 1 and could be a time where you made an actionable mistake in which you either took accountability for or had to adapt to a specific situation.
Question 2 — “Tell me about a time when you were given a difficult project.” This question could be looking for your ability to plan or execute a specific vision. So the answer could be pulled from set 3 with a story about how innovative you can be.
Question 3 — “Tell me about a time when you had to work in a group who had a difficult group member.” This could be looking for how you interact with other individuals. This answer will likely be pulled from set 2 where you can tell a story about how you relate well to others.
Your stories should be answered using theSTARmethod. And if it’s useful, here’s a potential percentage breakdown of an effective story:
Setting: 5%
Characters: 10%
Plot/Conflict: 20%
Climax/Leadership Qualities: 55%
End Result*: 10%
*Make sure to include quantifiable results with specifics
Practice: Google “”behavioral interview questions” and get familiar with being able to identify which set a any question can have can point to.
Answering the Common Questions
There are some questions you just have to be prepared for. Basically have these answers memorized because you’ll get asked them at every interview. Because they’re usually asked first, try to take the time to make a connection with your interviewer(s). Learn more about thathere.These questions include:
Tell me about yourself.
What’s your biggest strength/weakness?
Why did you choose this career/job?
Answering Off the Wall Questions
These can be the upmost random questions like:
Whats your spirit animal?
If you had to be a color what would it be?
If you could have any super power what would it be?
These questions are intended to see how you think under pressure or how quickly you can think on your feet. There’s usually no right answers to these. However, a wrong answer is one that’s filled with self doubt, unorganized, or worse, no answer at all. So, just pick the first thing that comes to mind and then quickly look for a positive characteristic or attribute to your answer and give that as the reason for it being your answer.
Answering Ethical Questions
Answering ethical question may feel a little awkward at first, but it’s fairly easy. Just make sure your answer follows any applicable laws, it’s what you think is right, and then defend it, no matter the circumstance. Your answer may seem silly, or it may seem like it’s against everyday practice given the situation, but for the interview, your answer should always follow the law and be the expected correct/right answer.
Hope this helps! Interview prep can be a stressful process. Shoot me an email to richard@vucahealth.com if you need any clarification on anything I mentioned in the article.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/pilots-are-like-pharmacists2018-08-19T12:05:00-04:002018-08-19T12:08:38-04:00Pilots are like PharmacistsRichard Waithe
No, Seriously.
I recently had a flight into Reno, Nevada, to go snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. On the flight, I had the pleasure of sitting next to a very nice gentleman. We ended up having one of the most meaningful conversations I’ve had with a stranger in a while.
Turns out, my new in-flight friend was an experienced pilot for American Airlines. He was flying back home from a simulation exam he had to complete to renew his license to continue to fly a specific aircraft. Commercial pilots have to do this yearly, btw. Before I knew it, we were reviewing flight plans for major airports, including Miami International Airport (MIA), one of the largest airports in the nation, also located in my hometown. Fun fact, every landing plan includes information for pilots on exactly how to land a plane if one of the engines has blown out. Crazy right?!
In deep conversation and really trying to learn what it’s like being a pilot, I finally asked, “and you know ALL this stuff?” He then replied, chuckling, “No.” It was that moment where I found that being a pilot is very similar to being a pharmacist. He continued to show me the thousands of pages of information that all pilots have at their fingertips. It included TONS of information about flying that particular aircraft, all stuff that theyshouldknow, right? I mean, they’re pilots aren't they?!
Well, some would say the same about us pharmacists, shouldn’t we know everything about every medication?
Well, yes, kind of. Not really.One of the important things about being a great pharmacist is not our ability to know everything, but more about our ability to find everything, andfast.And this is exactly how he explained what it’s like being a pilot. He didn’t have to know everything, but he sure did need to know exactly how to find everything. So, pharmacist, or future pharmacist, don’t beat yourself up about what you don’t know, but continue to craft your skill at quickly finding the information you need to know.
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
-Richard
—
Richard Waithe, PharmD | Email: Richard@RxRadio.fm
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/pharmacy-school-many-wouldn-t-do-it-again-i-would2018-08-19T11:52:00-04:002018-08-19T11:57:15-04:00Pharmacy School: Many Wouldn’t do it Again, I Would.Richard Waithe
With the current landscape of the industry, if posed the question, “would you go to pharmacy school again,” many pharmacists may say they’d reconsider. But me? I’d absolutely love to go back to pharmacy school. Heck, I wish I could go back to undergrad, remember all the free time?!
Yes, independent pharmacies are barely surviving, there are more pharmacists entering the job market than there might be jobs, health giants are merging, and everyone’s terrified of what’ll happen when Amazon's PillPack gets the ball rolling.
I get it.
Sounds scary.
And it is, but…
This is a really exciting time for pharmacy. The profession is going to see some amazing changes and I hope this article will show you why I’d do it all over again.
The role of a pharmacist will always be needed. Until the robots actually take over, we’ll always be in demand. It will be competitive and it’s likely not going look like what it does today. When we were more commonly known as the “Druggist,” especially in the early 1900s late 1800s we were actually preparing and making medications. Now, with advances in tech, medicines are massed produced and we’re not just making sure the patient gets the right drug, we’re much more clinically involved than we used to be. So, what’s to come? Well, for one, innovations in technology will dramatically change the way medications are dispensed. There’ll soon be a time where after a medication is prescribed to a patient, that medication will be at the patients door in two hours. That’s just one change. What else?
Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Voice
The power of voice and what’s called machine learning is still in its infancy. 2017 was the first year people actually got Alexa devices (and the competition) as gifts. Who’s seen the commercials with the cars having them? Soon, whether it be an Alexa, Google Home, Apple Pod, or some machine that hasn’t come to market yet, there is going to be one of these things within 5–10 feet of you at all times. In your bathroom, in your car, at your pharmacy. I just asked Siri for a calculation the other day which helped me accurately enter information for a prescription. We literally don’t need to learn math anymore.
So where do pharmacists fit into this? How can we use this technology to provide better care? Glad you asked. If you didn’t know, there are a couple skill every successful pharmacist needs to master:
The ability to ask the right questions
The ability to communicate effectively
The unique thing about these two skills is that they’re actually keys to the design of a successful voice experience. Because of this, there’s a huge potential for pharmacists to have major roles in designing voice experiences around healthcare. I’m currently working on an Alexa skill that should be able to handle basic questions pharmacists encounter every day, e.g., “how do I treat allergies,” or “what can I put on a burn.” And it’s just the beginning, soon we’ll see these devices handle more complicated scenarios like post/pre op procedure questions. The more time passes the more advanced and smarter apps on these devices will get and the more it will need a highly trained individual, such as pharmacists.
Detachment of Pharmacist and Dispensing
I do foresee an unfortunate situation happening. And it happens in most industries. We saw it with Uber, we’re seeing it with AirBnb. Everything traditional is being rethought. And I think pharmacy will be no different.
Once sharing economics hit the pharmacy world, in addition to advancements in dispensing I think there will be disruptions in the patient-pharmacist relationship. The traditional pharmacist counseling that comes with a medication dispensed will be no more. Most individuals who take medications will have their own personal pharmacist to help them manage their medications and disease states. I detail what that’ll like likeherein my article titled “Amazon’s Pharmacist.” The job description of these new roles ware what I dreamed about in pharmacy school. Not being a highly paid cashier. You’re role will go from occasionally ringing up Sandra’s weekly loaf of bread, to designing a highly individualized medication management plan for someone taking 15 medications. It’s what we actually go to school for.
Pharmacists in Primary Care
Even other healthcare providers are going to feel our roles changing. Primary care practices are becoming overwhelmed with work and we’re starting to see a big shift in more and more healthcare providers relying on pharmacists for their knowledge on medications. Because of this, I see a future where pharmacists are employed at primary care practices. Actually, forget the future, it’s actually already a thing. You may have just not heard of it yet, but I think it’ll be mainstream, especially with new drugs coming out every year, new findings and updates to guidelines, it only makes sense for a physician to have a pharmacist part of his/her practice. Could you imagine a world where prescriptions wouldn't even leave the doctor’s office until it’s reviewed by a pharmacist?! #mindblown
Blockchain
Bitcoin. Blockchain. Some new buzzwords that were hot in late 2017, early 2018. But where does it fit into healthcare, and more so, pharmacists? The whole movement starts to apply to our field when we realize that this technology has completely revolutionized the way we store data, view currency, and utilize legal contracts. Think of Bitcoin as being the first “application” of the technology. It started off by revolutionizing traditional paper currency, but it’s turning into much, much, more. Large organizations like IBM and Microsoft are already investing into the tech, and there are companies already developing blockchain healthcare applications. The two main areas of focus for blockchain in healthcare is tracking drugs during the drug supply chain and use in electronic health records. However, soon it will be an all areas in healthcare, which I’ll detail in coming articles. But both EHR and drug supply management have the potential for impactful roles that pharmacists can play a part in.
So…
The above are just reasonsI’mexcited about what’s to come. There’s so much more out here for us. It’s going to be up toyouto find it, or create it.
I’ll end with some advice. If you’re passionate about helping people. Pharmacy is a great industry to be in. But, if you’re (or were) looking for a stable career that pays, this may look like an attractive option, but it may not be right for you. All these things I mentioned above will take a lot of work to get to. It won’t just fall into our laps. It’ll be something we’ll have to go out and take. If I could do it all over again, I’d definitely go to pharmacy school, especially knowing what I know now.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/the-real-costs-of-healthcare-mergers2018-08-19T11:38:00-04:002018-08-19T11:55:57-04:00The Real Costs of Healthcare MergersRichard Waithe
It seems like every week we’re hearing talks of a large Healthcare merger, and as of late, it has heavily involved the prescription medication sectors. Whether it be two large companies merging or larger companies acquiring smaller ones, it’s just been more frequent than usual.
But why? Well, I could give you a couple hundred billion reasons why. But setting aside market value, pharmacy has been stuck in its ways for what seems like the last 30 years. For example, one of the biggest innovations in recent years from community pharmacy has been the ability to send patients a text notification when their prescriptions are ready. The industry is long over due for disruption. The recent and rumored mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are symptoms of the major change that’s coming.
Startups
For startups, being bought out is easy. Pharmacies like CVS have a lot of money. In 2017 they had a net revenue of $6.6 billion.NET. That means after all other expenses have been paid. Yet, they’re not really innovating. And what entrepreneur isn't looking for an exit? Likely, if they’ve had to raise money, they’ve got shareholders to account to. So it makes sense. In addition, healthcare ishard. Some companies are foreseeing the challenges ahead and likely see their best chances of success are with the help of healthcare giants. And what I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen more of yet, is companies following Target’s lead. They sold off their healthcare business, Target Pharmacy, to CVS. That sale could have been attributed to their failure in entering the Canada market, or it could have been a smart move so they could continue to focus on their retail and grocery efforts, being that, again, healthcare is hard.
For the companies involved in larger mergers, we’ll call them the establishment, I think it’s now a game of follow the leader…
The Establishment
In healthcare, the saying, “leverage in numbers,” really rings true. You know when you buy something wholesale, or how buying in bulk usually gets you a discount? This is exactly how these large M&As benefit two larger companies coming together. They’re able to consolidate the amount of patients they serve, which helps when negotiating their costs, like for drug prices of prescription medications.
Plus, think about the branding of it. You’d be surprised at the amount of people who think they have to go to a CVS/Pharmacy because it says “CVS/Caremark” on their insurance card.
What about everyone else, like patients and independent pharmacy owners, what’s the impact on them?
Patients
Critics of the larger M&As believe consumers (patients) will be footing the bill. They’re concerned about increasing healthcare costs to consumers as a result of lessening competition in the market place.
In addition, merging companies can lead to increased limitations on how and where patients can receive covered healthcare services, where they can pick up their medications, and even what medications are covered. Patients who have developed relationships with healthcare providers, like pharmacists who they sometimes see once a week, are forced to find new pharmacies and build new relationships. This isn’t a great situation for most parties involved. Patients are not happy they can’t go to the pharmacy they want to go to, pharmacists are upset because they’re losing a customer who they have a relationship with, not to mention their business. The patient’s new pharmacy often gets the complaint from the patient about how they’re only there because they’re being forced to be.
Proponents, usually the companies themselves, will say that joining forces increases their buying/negotiating power which helps the company save money. Said company will usually claim that those savings are passed on to their constituents (patients) and that there will be an increased access to healthcare services. The potential continuum of healthcare can be helpful. Though, having experience working in a CVS Pharmacy, it’s not like I had more access to help from CVS Caremark, I would call the same help desk as any other pharmacy.
In theory, prices will decrease, but who knows, really only time will tell. Prices could go up for patients because these large companies have more control. Or, due to the increased negotiating power maybe patients will actually see lower healthcare costs. It could be more limiting because more patients will have to abide by a more specific formulary.
Independent Pharmacies
Independent pharmacies are already at a disadvantage in comparison to retail pharmacy giants like CVS or Walgreens because of their low buying power. But the consolidation of these large companies mixed with decreasing reimbursement rates by these same companies merging, creates an even bigger problem for local Pharmacy owners. I recently spoke with a Independent Pharmacy owner about the landscape of M&As, and boy did he have some words.
“When companies get this large, at first, they will attempt to police themselves to appear as if they are keeping promises that their new power would be good for competition. It doesn’t take long before they stop caring and get greedy as they realize they don’t have to pretend. And imagine they are already your [Pharmacy’s] auditor, your competition, and they already get to tell you what you can charge. This is what terrifies me as an independent pharmacy owner.”
M. Scott Newman, PharmD, Owner of Newman Family Pharmacy.
The real concern that most individuals have is the more these M&As occur, the less competition there is in the marketplace. In most economies, this usually doesn't provide for better prices for the consumer, but only for more savings for the monopolistic companies.
Now, my thoughts on whether these mergers are a good thing or a bad thing? That’s a tough one. A part of me wants to see the meritocracy of it all play out. As it stands, most large retail chains actually provide a terrible product. The medications are the same, but the services, ugh. Have you ever read through customer reviews of large retail chains? Yet they’re still booming businesses. Whether it’s the acquisitions of smaller companies that have DNAs aimed at disruption or large mergers between health giants that will indeed shift the benefits to the consumers, I just hope it all leads to providing better care.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/why-biosimilars-are-not-generics2018-08-19T11:36:00-04:002018-08-19T11:36:44-04:00Why Biosimilars are not GenericsRichard Waithe
It’s a whole new world.
Biologics and biosimilars are all we’re hearing about now a days. It’s like we’re back in the early-mid 1900s when we were still trying to figure out how to deal with generic medications. A biosimilar drug is created based off an original (or Brand) biological drug. But, why aren’t we just calling it a generic drug?
Manufacturing
To understand why, we first have to understand a little bit about how a biosimilar is made. I won’t go over theentiremanufacturing process, but there are a couple key reasons why we don’t call a biosimilar a generic. Unlike small molecule medications (i.e. atorvastatin, metoprolol), and along with otherextensivemanufacturing processes, biological medications are made inside living organisms. These organisms have a very specific cell line and the manufacturers of the original biologic (called a reference product) are the only ones that have access to this specific organism’s cell line where the medication was produced. And with current technology, while these “generic” manufacturers are able to get the structural make up of the drug, they can’t produce an exactly replica of that structure. They can get it to be very similar, but the product will never be an exact replica. We know this is a stark difference between our small molecule drugs since the structure of Lipitor (atorvastatin) is, well, the exact same structure of atorvastatin. And there are so many other steps involved that manufacturers don’t have access to and it just makes it so difficult to create an exact structural replica. This is why biological medications don’t have generics, but instead they have a biosimilar.
Do they work the same?
Even though the structures are not identical, according to the FDA:
“A biosimilar is highly similar to, and has no clinically meaningful differences in safety, purity, and potency (safety and effectiveness) from, an existing FDA-approved reference product. The goal of a biosimilar development program is to demonstrate biosimilarity between the proposed biosimilar product and the reference product, not to independently establish the safety and effectiveness of the proposed product. Consequently, rather than generating the same full profile of nonclinical and clinical data as the reference product, a manufacturer that shows its proposed biosimilar product is highly similar to and has no clinically meaningful differences from the FDA-approved reference product may rely in part on FDA’s previous determination of safety and effectiveness for the reference product for approval. This generally means that biosimilar manufacturers do not need to conduct as many expensive and lengthy clinical trials, potentially leading to faster access to these products, additional therapeutic options, and reduced costs for patients.”
In Canada, biosimilars are actually treated like new drugs in terms of gaining market approval. However, here in the US, only the reference product is rigorously tested like a new drug, but biosimilar manufacturers only have to follow the above. You can read more about biosimilar approvals from theFDA here.So, to answer the question proposed at the beginning of this section, yes they do work the same.
Perspective
One thing that is super interesting to note is the stark difference in size of small molecule drugs and biologics. They’re said to be 1000x heavier and more complex in atomic structure than small molecules.
As you can see, the highly complex structure and manufacturing process of biological medications make it very difficult the replicate reference drugs to create generics. So unless we see come crazy advances in technology, “generic” manufacturers will be busy trying to develop, you guessed it, biosimilars.
Thanks for reading.
Take care,
-Richard
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Richard Waithe, PharmD | Richard@vucahealth.com
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/how-i-self-published-my-first-book2018-08-07T00:31:00-04:002018-08-07T00:31:22-04:00How I Self-Published My First BookRichard Waithe
I just had my first book published and I thought I’d give a high level overview of the process while it’s still fresh. This won’t be a complete guide, but I hope it will provide the starting point I didn’t have. There’s a lot of detail that goes into self-publishing, but this is really just going to be an overview of what to expect.
Having some years under my belt around being a community pharmacist, I thought it was time to write the book I wish I had when I first started out. So I got to typing.
1. Get it on “Paper”
The first thing I did when I knew I was going to writeFirst Time Pharmacistwas open up a Microsoft word file and just started typing away. Luckily, being a non-fiction book about my experiences, it didn’t involve much research. Technically, I had all the content of the book already in my mind. I just needed to get it out into the world. Writing a book is a great way to do just that. It’s almost like a blog. More so maybe like multiple blog posts that flowed in a sequence. If you’re interested in self publishing and you’re ready to get it on “paper,” I would highly recommend using Microsoft word as this is the file type. Word files are what is preferred when submitting to editors and the publishing companies that will be responsible for printing and distributing your new book.
2. Get it Edited
I’ll be dead honest with you, I suck at grammar. I’m sure if you really analyze all my other articles you may find some issues. And that’s because I’m usually the only one reviewing these things. There’s no paid professional proof reading through looking for my mistakes. But for publishing a book, I really wanted to make sure I could prevent as many mistakes as possible by having a professional review the manuscript. Being that I wanted to limit budget, I took to Fiverr, one of the largest market places for freelance services, to find a freelancer to help with what I was looking for. After some research with who I wanted to hire, I was able to submit my completed manuscript and have it edited for grammar errors and sentence structure. And Istillfound a few mistakes even AFTER being reviewed by a professional. So, it’s important to note that using freelancers do not guarantee perfection. I would advise doing a final run though as it will be your book, not the hired freelancer’s. You can always have two editors proof read it to really lower your chances of errors, it’ll just add to your budget.
3. Decide Where to Publish
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP ) Vs CS vs Others.
There are tons of self-publishing sites out there but I was able to narrow it down to IngramSpark, Create Space, and KDP. I decided to have my print version published through Create Space and the Kindle version through, your guessed it, KDP. I wasn’t a fan of Ingram Spark since they charge to use their service to publish AND to make any changes. And trust me, being a self-publisher, you’re going to find things in your final files you’re going to want to have changed. With Create Space and KDP, you can make these changes at no extra charge as many times as you want. When you make a change with KDP, the old version will still be available purchase until the new file is approved. For Create Space, your book becomes unavailable for purchase until the new file is approved. Even though I chose these two for my publishing needs, make sure to do you own research to see what best works for you. And know that you can publish to multiple platforms, so don’t feel the pressure to choose the right one right off the bat.
iBooks
When researching how I wanted to publish my own work, most resources said that getting to iBooks was a lot of work, more than the other platforms. And this turned out to be true! I am still waiting to even get my tax id approved to be able to submit my book. However, Apple has an amazing tool for creators called iBooks Author. It has prebuilt templates where you can just copy and paste your content in there. It does require a lot of formatting work and not many free lancers advertise they do this kind of work. But, if you’re the creative type, you’ll love playing with its’ design capabilities.
4. Design a Cover
Depending on your creative ability, you can either do this yourself, or hire someone to do it for you. This is kind of obvious but you’ll definitely need to have a front cover designed. And depending on how you plan to sell your book, you may need to have a back cover designed as well.
Cover for Ebooks
For this you really just need a flat, one page 2D image. Creating a back cover is optional for eBooks. I let my creative juices flow and usedCanvato design my cover. Your cover is your books handshake, the first impression, so be mindful of what goes on there. Do you want your picture on there? Or maybe a quote from a famous individual relevant to your book’s audience? As you can see on mine, I just thought it was important to include some important topics listed being that it’s a non-fiction book.
Cover for Print
This cover is a lot more complicated and I would HIGHLY recommend you hire someone to do this one for you. This file has to meet near exact size requirements to properly print on a physical book.
The designers on Fiverr, and all the other marketplaces, can design your cover from scratch. But again, I already designed my front cover on Canva and had a prototype ready to go. One thing that was a surprise to me was the fact that if your book was less than 120 pages there wouldn’t be much room for words on the spine of the book. I thought this would have been a nice feature, but I wasn’t able to get anything on the spine since it was less than the required 120.
When designing a cover for print, keep in mind that if you’re going to be using CreateSpace you have to leave a space for a barcode on the bottom right back cover of the design as shown here:
I’m not sure if other print companies do the same since CreateSpace was the only company I went with.
5. Choose a Book Size
If you noticed above, this image is for a book sized 6" x 9." When researching common book sizes, I found this the most common, but I actually decided to go with 5" x 8.” For what I was going for with my book, a resource/guide, I thought this size would be the best “fit.” A good way to see which size you may want your book to be is by finding books laying around your house. Line the books up, find a ruler, and just start seeing what feels right.
6. Formatting
For each book that you plan on having for sale, you’ll need to have it formatted for that particular book type. This was the 3rd and final thing I went to fiverr for, and its the one I’d say is a MUST for self-publishing. I had no idea what margins to use and what file type was good for what, but these are all things someone formatting a book needs to consider. The person I was able to hire gave me files to submit both to KDP for the eBook and to CreateSpace for the Print Copy. After submitting the formatted files to each, they do allow you to preview what the final product should look like so take advantage and ensure it’ll print exactly how you want it.
7. To ISBNs or not to ISBN?
An ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number, basically the social security number for your book. In general, obtaining an ISBN for your book is not required, especially for eBooks. But I do believe when printing hard copies it is. At least with CreateSpace you had to have one to go with the barcode that will be automatically placed on the back of the book. What sucks is that ISBNs are expensive! CreateSpace does give you a free one (I’ll get into that later), but buying your own can cost as much as $125 for just one ISBN an $295 for 10. There’s multiple packages available and as you can imagine the more you buy the cheaper it is per ISBN. But it starts to get expensive when you realize that ISBNs are not used per book. But per format, per book! So if you have written one book, you would need a ISBN for the paperback version AND the Kindle version. Ugh!
Why I Bought an ISBN
When researching whether or not to spend the money on ISBNs I felt like it was best to get my own. First, I read you may not have complete rights to a book if your ISBN is from a third party (found no official legal document on this and many saying this isn’t an issue). Second, depending on if you want to make a book that would one day make it into bookstores, having an ISBN provided by a self publishing site may limit your options as some book stores will not stock your book if it’s ISBN is from a third party self-publishing company.
With all this hoopla around ISBNs, I started to wonder, maybe I can help others in the pharmacy industry with self-publishing their own works. Not only does it have a social media presence for marketing, but we can save on ISBNs and not have to use one of the self-publishing thirty party ISBNs. Instead, Rx Radio can be listed as the publisher and open up the doors for large book retailers. So, if anyone is interested with self-publishing on the platform send me an email to Richard@rxradio.fm. If you do, I’ll help you develop a detailed marketing strategy on a book launch, along with posting across all social media channels, including the podcast, to promote your new work.
8. List Price
How much will your book cost consumers? There’s all kinds of pricing strategies out there, but it boils down to are you looking to make the most profit possible per book or are you just trying get exposure. You can look at other books in your category or even similar books to your content and see what they decided for in pricing. And you can change your book price based on market demand. So don’t feel too much pressure to choose the ideal price. Test and learn.
9. Timing
Alright, you’ve submitted all your files! How long does it take for your book to get published? For the Kindle version it was a couple hours before it went live on Amazon. For the print version, it took about a day to show up for sale.
I really hope this gave you a little more insight into getting a book published. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, I’d love to help. Also,here’s an articlebyJack Preston Kingwith waaaaay more detail when you’re ready to go if you need more info.
My new book helps pharmacy students and new graduates handle insurance issues, prevent misfills, deal with the workload, and build great relationships with their patients and their teams in a community pharmacy.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/dear-healthcare-professional-don-t-take-it-personal2018-08-07T00:29:00-04:002018-08-07T00:29:55-04:00Dear Healthcare Professional, Don’t Take It PersonalRichard Waithe
Being a healthcare provider means it’s highly likely that the people we take care of on a daily basis are sick. Whether you’re a pharmacist (like me), nurse, physician, or physical therapist, you’re likely in the same boat. In addition to dealing with patients, if you’re at a large institution like at a hospital, you’re likely working amongst other healthcare providers as well. And these healthcare providers are each dealing withtheirown patients.
Why am I pointing this out? Pretty obvious right?
What I’m hoping you’re starting to realize here is that when you work in healthcare, everyone you’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis likely hassomethinggoing on. Your patient picking up their metformin prescription may have just received the news of a new diagnosis of diabetes. Your attending may have just had to deliver some terrible news to one of their patient’s family. Point is, everyone’s got something going on, and sometimes they’re in a rough place. So the next time you have a problematic patient, or a colleague that seems like he/she is acting like a jerk, don’t take it personal. Yes, sometimes that person just sucks, I get it. But try to think about whattheymay be going through. Their interaction with you may have nothing to do with you, but it may have been something that affected them six hours ago. I always try to keep this in mind and it’s really helped me cope with the times I have rough interactions with other people at work. Hopefully it could do the same for you.
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https://rxradio.fm/blogs/articles/pharmacy-personnel-here-s-how-to-leave-work-safely2018-07-31T21:12:00-04:002018-07-31T21:12:58-04:00Pharmacy Personnel, Here’s How to Leave Work SafelyRichard Waithe
There has been a recent story in the news about a Publix Pharmacy employee, Alvin Ahmed, who went missing after his shift at his pharmacy about a week ago. There hasn’t been many updates so far except for Facebook posts by Alvin’s brother, Kalvin. I cannot imagine what him and his family must be going through. But, in a recent post Kalvin mentioned he hoped this situation would bring awareness to prevent this from happening to someone else and with that in mind, I hope this article provides some best practices that every pharmacy individual could follow to do just that.
There has been a recent story in the news about a Publix Pharmacy employee, Alvin Ahmed, who went missing after his shift at his pharmacy about a week ago. There hasn’t been many updates so far except for Facebook posts by Alvin’s brother, Kalvin. I cannot imagine what him and his family must be going through. But, in a recent post Kalvin mentioned he hoped this situation would bring awareness to prevent this from happening to someone else and with that in mind, I hope this article provides some best practices that every pharmacy individual could follow to do just that.
1. Park close.
This is a tough one to put into practice since a lot of companies require employees to park in certain areas to allow convenience to customers. But, in my opinion, this rule should not be applied to pharmacy employees. People who work in a pharmacy have interactions with people that can have a significant affect on their quality of life. There are times patients feel as if pharmacy employees intentionally make their lives miserable and could possibly want to cause harm to said pharmacy employee. In addition, our patients can be suffering from a mental illness which may ultimately lead to a violent altercation. And for these reasons, if your pharmacy does have a policy where employees must park far from the entrance, I would ask for some sort of exception or change to that policy for pharmacy employees.
2. Take off your coat.
When pharmacists are done with our shift we close up and just walk straight out to our car. I know the feeling, we want to get home as soon as possible to recover from the last 12 hours. But you should always take off your white coatbeforeleaving the pharmacy. And don’t just take it off and throw it over your arm. I would even go as far as taking off your coat, folding it, and putting it into a plastic bag andthenleave the pharmacy.
3. Carry a whistle.
Loud noises are an amazing method of defense. Although any whistle would do the trick, Amazon has thesedisaster whistlesthat are deafening when used and is an awesome self defense tool. Try to keep one with your keys or in your pocket.
4. Outside Lighting
I know there is probably a million other things your store manager may be dealing with, but ensuring a well lit parking lot should be made a priority. So, if you feel like your normal lighting (or if a light is out) doesn’t provide for a safe walk to and from your car, I would mention something to the store manager. And I would mention it using an email, possibly copying your supervisor on it. It’s more likely to be acted on, especially in the name of safety, when an email is sent with someone else “watching.” And don’t forget to follow up!
5. Use the buddy system.
I understand this is not always possible, especially when pharmacists have to stay late to try and finish off everything for the day. But if possible, try to use the buddy system and walk to your car with someone from your team when your shift is over. However, if there is a day where you’re by yourself and you may have gotten into an altercation with a patient, or even threatened, I would make sure to have someone from your store walk with you to your car.
If it’s not feasible with having someone with you at the store to walk out with, call someone on the phone when you leave work. But, it is important to note, until you get to your car, try to remain cognizant of your surroundings! We all know how distracting a phone call with the bestie can be. And please, what ever you do, don’t walk out of the pharmacy and just have your face in your phone scrolling though Instagram or Facebook, this is a sure way to have no idea what’s going on around you.
6. If allowed, carry pepper spray.
Nothing much to add to this except if you decide to carry a pepper spray I would make sure to practice using it. You don’t want your first time using this to be in an emergency. And I’ll be honest, I think most pharmacies have a policy against having pepper spray, but I know many pharmacists who carry this on them, anyway.
7. Have keys ready, but…
Don’t unlock your car with your remote until you’re close to your car. If you do, this can make people aware of exactly which is your car ahead of time. While it is a good idea to have your keys in your hand ready to go, don’t unlock the doors until you’re close.
8. Ask about cameras
Most pharmacies have cameras outside monitoring entrances and parking lots, but if yours does not, follow my advice in step 4 in reaching out via email to your store manager and copying your supervisor to ask for some.
9. Treat everyone nicely.
Because, you just really never know.
While I can understand this is a scary situation, I think it is an important topic to talk about to ensure your preparedness and hopefully prevent the unthinkable.