Purple Pen Podcast

In another best-of collection to celebrate our 100th episode, here are Jane's Top Five favourite episodes:

• Episode 64: Are We Wasting Our Patient's Time? with Brian Dolan

• Episode 20: Heart Failure with Rochelle Gellatly

• Episode 59: Interventions to Improve Analgesic Prescribing with Jenny Stephens

• Episode 80: Peri-operative medicines management with Tanya Selak

• Episode 99: National Reconciliation Week with Chastina Heck and Aleena Williams

To celebrate our 100th episode, we're bringing you some highlights packages. First up is a recap of our five most downloaded episodes:

• Episode 1: Antibiotic Allergies with Jason Trubiano (with an update for Episode 50)

• Episode 45: Why tramadol sucks with David Juurlink

• Episode 49: Cardiovascular Therapeutic Guidelines update with Jane O'Connor and Dan Scherer

• Episodes 55 and 56: Antibiotic pharmacokinetics with Jason Roberts

• Episode 70: Haematology Basics with Ian Bilmon

In an episode to mark National Reconciliation week, Dan and Kristin spoke to Chastina Heck and Aleena Williams. Chastina is a clinical pharmacist at Logan Hospital and an Associate Lecturer at the University of Queensland. Aleena is the Director of Immunisations at the Northern Territory Public Health Directorate.

Chas and Aleena are both proud Aboriginal women and pharmacists. In this episode, they share their personal and professional stories with us.

National Reconciliation Week is from May 27 to June 3 2020. You can learn more here.

Kristin flies solo this week to talk to Dr Lisa Kouladjian O'Donnell, a consultant pharmacist and postdoctoral research associate affiliated with the NHMRC Cognitive Decline Partnership Centre, The University of Sydney, and the Kolling Institute, Royal North Shore Hospital, NSW.

Kristin and Lisa discuss:

• definitions of polypharmacy and deprescribing

• drivers of polypharmacy

• at-risk populations

• a collaborative approach to deprescribing

• the Drug Burden Index (DBI) calculator

You can read more about Lisa's work here.

The Goal-directed Medication review Electronic Decision Support System (G-MEDSS) is here.

Kristin & Dan spoke to Prof Ramon Shaban, Clinical Chair of Infection Prevention and Disease Control, University of Sydney and Western Sydney Local Health District

We covered

• Australia's interventions to reduce the spread of COVID-19
• Testing of COVID-19, including the difference between antibodies, antigens & PCR testing. Are false negatives an issue? The challenges of doing a good swab
• Asymptomatic spread and how significant it is in Australia
• Face masks, how they should be used and the basics of transmission
• What we know so far about reinfection and vaccination for COVID-19

Dan caught up with Mel Ankravs, chair of the SHPA Critical Care Leadership Group and Senior Pharmacist at the Royal Melbourne for a brief chat about the basics to caring for COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

We couldn't cover everything in this episode, but Mel recommends these resources for a deeper dive:

National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce - an Australian repository of evidence for the management of COVID-19

Introduction to Critical Care: A COVID-19 Rapid Response document - a bigger introduction from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Kristin and Dan spoke to Professor Mary-Louise McLaws from the University of New South Wales Faculty of Medicine. Professor McLaws is a renowned infection control expert with extensive experience in novel viruses such as SARS. She is also an expert on pandemics and outbreak investigations.

We covered:

• Why do novel virus cause so much concern compared to known entities such as the flu?

• How does COVID-19 compare to influenza or SARS?

• The finer points of quarantine

• An overview of surgical vs N95 masks and what is appropriate for COVID-19

• The treatments (remdesivir, chloroquine & angiotensin II receptor antagonists) for COVID-19 and when we can expect a vaccine for prevention

Kristin and Jane spoke to Professor Alex Broom from the University of Sydney. Alex is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Sociology and Social Policy.

We asked Alex:

• What is sociology, and how does it apply to studies of healthcare and illness?

• How are principles of sociology particularly relevant to addressing rising antimicrobial resistance?

• What effect does organisational culture have on the use of antimicrobials?

• How can sociology principles be used as a stewardship tool?

You can read more about Alex's work on his University of Sydney Researcher Page.

WE'RE BACK!

Happy 2020 to all our listeners! Today Kristin and Dan are joined by Dr Tanya Karaconji, Ophthalmologist at Sydney Eye Hospital, where we discuss a number of topics related to eye emergencies. We discuss:

• Red flags for selling chloramphenicol

• Eye drops made of swimming pool tablets

• How damaging one eye can make you lose both

• Intravitreal injections and culturing the eye jelly

• Hourly eye drops for keratitis

In the last of our episodes from MM2019, we spoke to the 2019 SHPA Medal of Merit winner, Tom Simpson.

Tom is the Executive Director for statewide hospital pharmacy in Tasmania. He gave us a recap of his excellent oration, based around five pieces of advice for his younger self.

You can read more about Tom and the SHPA Medal of Merit here