Purple Pen Podcast

f you found any of the topics discussed in this episode distressing, you can reach out for confidential advice to Pharmacists Support Service at supportforpharmacists.org.au or on 1300 244 910. Our medical colleagues can visit the Australasian Doctors' Health Network - adhn.org.au

Dan and Jane are joined by Dr Ash Witt, a Physician trainee to discuss the issue of wellbeing in the medical workforce.

We discuss:

• How the current system lets down junior doctors

• What a typical career path for a junior doctor looks like

• The brave and moving blog post by Dr Yumiko - "The Ugly Side of Becoming a Surgeon"

• Rostering, overtime and nightshifts

• How to choose a coffee!

We are indebted to Ash for her bravery in speaking out on these key issues. Follow her on twitter: @dr_ashwitt - please be sure to thank her if you enjoyed the episode.

Kristin and Dan get back to basics in Haematology from Dr Ian Bilmon, a Haematologist & BMT Physician at Crown Princess Mary Cancer Centre, Westmead and Sydney Adventist Hospital

We talk about:

• the most common haematological malignancies and how they differ
• How these conditions present, what initial treatment looks like and how the prognosis differs
• What's on the horizon for Haematology

Dan and Kristin spoke to Dr Juanita Westbury, Senior Lecturer with the Wicking Dementia Research & Education Centre at the University of Tasmania about the best practice use of antipsychotics in aged care.

We spoke to Juanita about:

• The roles for pharmacists in aged care facilities

• Common issues with medicines use in aged care facilities

• Complexities around the term "chemical restraint"

• Best practice for the management of behavioural symptoms of dementia

We caught up with Dr Simone Taylor from Austin Health and Amy McRae from Alfred Health about their work. Both Simone and Amy had projects featured in the "Time To Shine" session at last year's SHPA Medicines Management Conference.

Amy's paper is titled "Collaboration Between Healthcare and Industry to Improve the Safety of Neuromuscular Blocking Agents in Australia". It describes an initiative to improve the packaging and labelling of these high-risk medicines.

Simone's paper is titled "Emergency Department Screening Tools to Assist Pharmacists Targeting Patients at Risk For Medication Related Problems". It describes the development of a tool to help pharmacists to identify patients who are at highest risk and would benefit most from pharmacist intervention.

Recorded live at MM2018 in Brisbane, Dan and Kristin sat down with Erica Tong, Deputy Director of Pharmacy and Chief Pharmacy Information Officer for Alfred Health about partnered pharmacist medication charting.

We spoke to Erica about her team's work developing a model for partnered pharmacist medication charting on admission to hospital and the safety outcomes that have been achieved.

Happy holidays! The team is taking an episode off over Christmas, and in honour of Rohan's Clinical Pharmacy award at 2018, we are re-broadcasting this "classic hit". We will see you all in the new year with some great new episodes

Jane and Dan spoke to Dr Rohan Elliott, senior pharmacist in aged care at Austin Health, adjunct senior lecturer at Monash University, and a research consultant with the Royal District Nursing Service Institute.

We talk to Rohan about:

· The definition of geriatric medicine, and what it means to be frail

· How the geriatric medicine approach differs from other specialties

· Decision making in geriatric medicine

In this very special holiday episode, Dan and Kristin are joined by Dr Lindsey Fitzharris. Lindsey has a PhD in History from Oxford University and authored the wonderful book "The Butchering Art" which details the efforts of Joseph Lister to make surgery safer.

We discuss:

• What surgery was like before anaesthetics and antiseptics
• How these agents were introduced to Britain
• Why you didn't want surgery in a hospital in the 1800s
• Two key surgeons in Victorian Britain: Liston and Lister
• Joseph Lister's relentless drive to introduce antiseptics to surgical practice
• Lots of gory details about surgery 150 years ago!

Recorded live at MM2018, the 44th SHPA National Conference, Jane, Dan and Kristin caught up with keynote speaker Prof Brian Dolan. Brian is Director of Health Service 360 (UK) and Director of Service Improvement, Canterbury District Health Board, NZ where his role includes whole system culture engagement and change.

• why boredom could be worse than smoking for our patients

• the language that we use in healthcare that can be problematic for our patients

• what is meant by the term "PJ Paralysis" and how this became a movement

This is Part 2 of our episode recorded live at the Antibiotic Allergy in Practice Workshop at Austin Health. We spoke to Prof Elizabeth Phillips, Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University (USA); Prof Connie Katelaris, Allergist and Immunologist at the University of Western Sydney and Campbelltown Hospital; and Dr James Yun, Allergist and Immunologist and the University of Sydney.

We were really lucky to get to speak to this panel of experts. We asked them about:

• practical aspects of delabelling antibiotic allergies

• the emerging role of genetic testing

• why not all SCARs are created equal

• emerging treatment options for severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCARs)

• the long-term sequelae of a severe adverse reaction

Jane and Dan attended the Antibiotic Allergy in Practice Workshop, held at Austin Health.

In this bumper episode we speak with a number of distinguished guests around the management of antibiotic allergy:

• Dr Ar Kar Aung, ID Physician from The Alfred discusses the classification and detection of antibiotic adverse reactions

• Dr MIchelle Goh, Dermatologist at Alfred Health, Austin Health and Peter MacCallum regarding characterising allergy phenotypes

• Dr Natasha Holmes, ID and Antibiotic Allergy Physician, on drug induced acute interstitial nephritis

• Karen Urbancic, ID Pharmacist at Austin Health and the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship, on the practicalities of desensitisation protocols.