Run-throughs of core concepts in pharmacy, approached pragmatically
How do we think about how confident we are in our opinions and recommendations? What can we apply from GRADE principles to our own thinking about the evidence base?
How does a newspaper article based on a scientific paper compare to the paper itself, and how can you spot when you need to be a bit more skeptical about what you're being told? Today, we're looking at an article on the link between antenatal steroids and autism, then looking at the underlying paper to see if it actually says the same thing. Definitely worth 8 minutes of your time!
To tie in with the 50th annual UKMi conference in Cardiff, which itself ties in with the 50th anniversary of UKMi, here's a re-run of an episode from the archive - what's the point of Medicines Information Services? With an introduction by podcast super-fan Hannah (thanks Hannah - you've done a disturbingly good job and may now need to record all future podcasts) what's not to like? Enjoy!
Sadly, the podcast has had to part ways with Ollie and his jingle - the demands for royalties were becoming just too much. But let's not let that hold us back from talking about NICE and what the point of it is. To celebrate the thousandth technology appraisal a couple of months ago, here's a quick summary of why we quite like NICE, despite its necessary limitations
Royalty payments are still going to Ollie for his fantastic jingles, but aside from that, this time out we're looking at AI - ChatGPT and the like - and what its role might be. AI is allegedly the future, but is the future here now? Well, not to ruin the podcast, but no. But it is still interesting - surely you can spare 8-ish minutes of your life to find out why it's not quite there yet, and why it might not be a good idea to rely on it to answer your medicines related questions. Keep employing your friendly pharmacy medicines nerds!
Ever wondered what the point of pharmacy is? Ever wanted to know how long someone can talk about the history of pharmacy for? Well wait no longer - turns out it's just over 14 minutes. An extended edition to kick off the new set of podcasts!
For those who can't even spare 8 minutes, this podcast clocks in just north of 5. How can we explain what the different summary statistics actually mean?
Coming in at nearly 10 minutes, this is the long version of the summary statistics podcast. What are they, why do we like certain ones over others, and how do they behave?
With the world imploding and the climate crisis emerging, what role does pharmacy and medicines have in the area? And more importantly, what can we do as individuals working in the area to make things better and make a difference?
Of all the many conundrums of hospital pharmacy, this is possibly one of the greatest - why are most of them designed with terrible offices and no windows? Just in time for your summer holiday, this is the pharmacy / architecture crossover podcast episode you never knew you needed but now can't live without. Covering Florence Nightingale, germ theory, the birth of the NHS, the Linstead and Noel Hall reports, plus the omnipresent and omni-malevolent Toyota method, this is a whistle stop tour through pharmacy history to try to explain this most puzzling fact.
What's the plural of "Summary of Product Characteristics"? Summaries of Product Characteristics, or Summary of Product Characteristicses? Just one of the many questions this podcasts doesn't answer (because it's only 8 minutes long and about pharmacy stuff so there's loads of stuff outside the bounds of the podcast). But if your question is "how should I think about SPCs, and what are their benefits and limitations," then you've just hit the jackpot by finding this podcast! And if that wasn't your question - why not? Listen anyway, to find out why it should have been. Enjoy!
Just when you thought pharmacy couldn't get more interesting, here we go with a podcast about pharmacokinetics basics. What is a volume of distribution, what does it mean, and why should we care? All this and even more epic stuff! Hold onto your hats, kids - this is going to be a wild one! Give it a listen and see if exceeds your (low) expectations! (We've tried to keep it to under 7 minutes to compensate for the subject matter)
It's a quiz. On a Friday. About pharmacy things. There's almost zero chance you'll get 6/6
We're back into critical appraisal of unpronounceable medicines! Using eptinezumab as an example, how does it work to treat migraines, how well does it work, and most importantly, how did NICE use a network meta-analysis to look at how good it is compared to its equally unpronounceable friends? What is a network meta-analysis, and what are the key points? Enjoy!
It's back! It's a quiz! It's about a minute long! It's on a Friday! That's pretty much all there is to say. Oh, apart from question 5 - you can have a point if you get within 5 of the answer (we're feeling generous as it's the first week back - it won't happen again)
We're back! Asking "what's the point" of more bits of pharmacy. Many thanks to Hannah and Olivia for taking the time to explain the world of radiopharmacy. What exactly is it? Why's everything so heavy to lift? And why do they always seem to be in so early in the mornings? Only 8 minutes out of your day to find out!
Medical gases are medicines, but often relatively neglected by pharmacy - so it's time for a review of what they are and why we should care about them, all provided by our guest expert, Lucy. There's so much stuff we've been slightly flexible (but not that flexible - we are still pharmacy) and given her 10 minutes instead of the normal 8. Loads of content with this one - the only thing you'll not find out is why gases only has 1 "s" in the middle, when all the laws of English would suggest it should have 2. Give it a listen - what have you got to lose?
Never one to miss a bandwagon, with the recent announcement of the withdrawal of pholcodine it seemed an ideal opportunity to look at the study that provided the data to prompt the review. How does pholcodine make you more likely to have an allergic reaction to neuromuscular blocking agents? How do we know? And whilst we answer these questions, we'll also talk about case control studies and odds ratios too. There's not much more fun you can pack into an 8-ish minute podcast!
This week, we're having a look at the fancy new imlifidase, which is used around renal transplant and costs a small fortune (though may be worth it - in the grand scheme of transplants and dialysis, most drugs costs pale into insignificance). What does it do, what do NICE think, and can we play along and see whether we'd get to the same conclusions as NICE - or does commercial confidentiality get in the way and ruin all our fun? Only 8 minutes to find out!
One of the most common questions we get asked about medicines where there isn't a straight forward answer is how to work out whether a medicine is harming someone's liver, or whether someone's liver is affecting a medicine. For kidneys we have eGFR and CrCl. For liver we have LFTs. But why is it not that simple, and how can we start thinking about these sorts of questions to try to make it a bit simpler? This isn't a podcast about what a specific LFT means at specific levels (because - spoiler alert - LFTs don't work like that) but does try to give an overview of what sorts of things to think about and what common pitfalls might be.
A quick 8 minute tour of pharmacy-specific bits of clinical trials and what the point of them is. What do pharmacy clinical trials teams actually do, and why?
In pharmacy, we often bang on about half lives, but what are they actually useful for, and what are the limitations of the values we're given in SPCs? This podcast aims to be a whistle stop tour of half lives, covering some of the interesting things about them and when they might lead us astray (and hardly any maths at all, in case you were worried).
A quiz! About pharmacy things! With Kerry! And a hint of Canada!
A quiz! About pharmacy things! With Rebecca and Sally!
Missing novel Covid treatments and cutting edge pharma tech? Well, don't worry because Evusheld is the newish monoclonal antibody thing that might be useful as a prophylactic treatment for those people for whom vaccines don't work. But how do we know what do we know, what don't we know, and how can we make this all comprehensible if someone asks us about it?
It's a quiz! About antibiotics! With Eve!
It's a bit niche (or is it?...) but why would a company give away it's shiny new drug for free? Why do these schemes exist? What's in it for the drug company? What's in it for the NHS? What are the risks? Overall - what's the point? Just under 8 minutes of your life needed to get a potted summary and find out!
A Friday Quiz! With Andrew! How many can you get?
Finally - they're here! But what exactly is an Integrated Care System or ICS, and why have they been created? Park your cynicism and have a whistle stop tour of ICSs, ICBs, ICPs to meet the saviours of the NHS. Plus bonus material on the previous iterations of SHAs, DHAs, PCGs, PCTs, CCGs, and any number of TLAs in the NHS! It's going to be an excellent way to spend 8 minutes of your life!
To tie in with Medicines Safety Week, we're having a look at the Yellow Card Scheme - what is it, why do we have it, and why is it a really important thing that everyone should make efforts to join in and contribute their adverse event reports.
Halloween-themed pharmacy 1 minute quiz, with the legendary Alison!
It's third time out for molnupiravir, with the preliminary results of the Panoramic study. Does molnupiravir work at preventing admission to hospital? Does Panoramic support the findings of Move-Out? How directly linked to our patients are the two trials? What on Earth is a Bayesian credible interval? There's a lot to cover in just over 8 minutes!
Week 5, with a new guest host Lucy, of medical gases fame!
In a trial first of a kind, this week we've rented out the podcast to the inestimable Chris Day and Katherine Stirling from Leeds Teaching Hospitals to talk about the practicalities of managing DOACs. Who should get what? What do you need to do when a patient is admitted to hospital? What do patients and GPs need to know when patients leave the hospital taking them? There's a Leeds flavour to things, but useful to all wherever you are. 8 and a bit minutes to do some practical learning!
Back for week 4 of the pharmacy nano-quiz, this time with Charlie "I used to be an MI pharmacist" Daniel
Lecanemab is the shiny new medicine for Alzheimer's that's been in the press - a 27% decrease in progression sounds great, plus it's a 'mab, so it must be cool. But how might it work, what do we actually know from the press release, and what do we need to have a closer look at?
Congratulations for finding your way back for week 3's quiz offering. Only just over a minute to test your pharmacy knowledge!
What's the point of an ePMA pharmacist? What's an ePMA? Why is FHIR cool and interesting? What does DM+D stand for? If acronyms are your thing, this podcast might be right up your street. And we also talk about how electronic prescribing systems are overall a good thing, and what pharmacy can contribute to making them better.
The pilot quiz wasn't hated, so here's the first official one!
In honour of World Patient Safety Day, we're asking the question - what's the point of Medication Safety Officers? Why do we have them? What do they do? What problems are they trying to solve and how can they make your life better? How are they like Liam Neeson? It's only just over a 7 minute listen to find out!
Back on the "what's the point of..." various bits of pharmacy, today we're asking what's the point of medicines management nurses? What do they do, and why can't pharmacists just do everything?
Keeping on with the "What's The Point Of..." topics, this week we've dared to step outside of a hospital (though not too far) and are having a look at what a virtual ward pharmacist does. What do they actually do, and how is it different to a non-virtual ward pharmacist?
In the break before we get the "What's the point of... Medicines Management Nurses" episode, we're going back for a refresher on evidence based medicine and looking at the hierarchy of evidence triangle thingy. What are the different types of studies? Which ones are better than others? What does better mean? How does any of this link to Matthew Paris's map of Britain, made around 1250? It'll only take 9 minutes to find out! Link to Matthew Paris's map here - https://historiacartarum.org/annotated-claudius-map/
It's finally here! The much anticipated (ok, maybe not anticipated - delayed may be a more accurate description) "what's the point of pharmacy procurement?" Why do we run out of medicines? Why do different areas of the country use different products? Why should this stuff be important to you? Only 8 minutes of your time to spend listening to this podcast to find out!
Welcome back! It's been a couple of weeks, but we're back with a new podcast now we've got a believable excuse to avoid talking about pharmacy procurement again. This time, we're going to talk about alpelisib, how it works, the problems you get into when you try to do indirect comparisons between different trials, and how data being confidential makes looking at stuff for yourself really difficult.
Sticking on the critical appraisal theme, we have a look at tecovirimat, the antiviral suggested as an option for the treatment of monkeypox. How does it work, what does it do, how do we know, and how confident are we in the evidence base? As part of this, we have a think about the directness of evidence, and how far it might be sensible to extrapolate from the data we have to different clinical scenarios.
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