So, you’re a second year pharmacy student sitting in pharmacokinetics class. You're listening to your professor animatedly discuss this strange new topic. But let’s be honest, you’re still trying to figure out what the word "pharmacokinetics" (or even regular "kinetics") means.
Frankly, you’re just excited to have a new super long word to use when playing hangman with your classmates.
Read MoreEditor's note: To date, our most reader requested topic has been HIV. We've written a guest post at MedEd101 to cover the most NAPLEX-worthy testing points. But we thought we'd dig in a little further here. Over the next few weeks, we're posting a series called HIV Boot Camp. We'll shore up your HIV fundamentals. Then we'll breakdown each drug class piece by piece to highlight what you need to know. For convenience, we'll link each part of the series here.
Background
HIV is a bastard. Let's just start right out with that
Read MorePimavenserin [Nuplazid]
The treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with psychosis in Parkinson's Disease
Read MoreReslizumab [Cinqair]
It's yet another monoclonal antibody (YAMA? #YAMA?) approved for the treatment of severe asthma that is poorly controlled.
Read MoreIt is a truth universally acknowledged, that a doctor in possession of a cellulitis patient, must be in want of an antibiotic recommendation from pharmacy....
Once, a medical resident called me to ask about a patient on the floor I was covering. The patient was 23, and in good health. He showed up to the ED overnight because of a worsening red/swollen wound he received doing construction work a few days prior. He was afebrile.
The overnight team admitted him to the hospital and started on Vanc and Zosyn (I like to call it "ZoVan").
Read MoreInfliximab-dyyb [Inflectra]
It’s a biosimilar to infliximab [Remicade], so it has the same indications. Primarily, you’re going to see it used for Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis. But you’ll also see it occasionaly used for ankylosing spondylitis and psoriasis.
Read MoreHello Everyone! Just a quick note to mention that we wrote a guest post over at the very awesome www.meded101.com
The post goes through some HIV wisdom for the NAPLEX....which is fast approaching if you're a P4. You can check it out here:
https://www.meded101.com/top-5-hiv-clinical-pearls-naplex/
Read MoreHepatitis C has been in the news a lot recently. On one hand, the advances in research have some touting the disease on the verge of being "cured." On the other hand, the "Because We Can, That's Why" $1000 per pill regimens are coming under scrutiny from congress.
Many of us try to avoid Hepatitis C (HCV) because so much of the therapeutics are new and "foreign" to us. Also, the HCV treatment guidelines have changed at least twice in the time it's taken you to read this far. But HCV isn't going away. And you know it's going to be on the NAPLEX. So let's dig in, and see if we can't make some sense of this ever-evolving disease.
Read MoreHere's the scene. I'm a new PGY1 resident. I'm still a little nervous with the whole "residency" thing. I'm on my first rotation, covering is an IMC unit (which has patients less sick than an ICU, but more sick than a regular medicine floor). It's still early in the residency, and I'm already tired. Rounds start at 9am, but I arrived hours before to work up my patients. And I woke up hours before that because I hadn't yet lost my motivation for exercise and general health and wellness.
Read MoreIf you are a future (or current) pharmacist, you need to know warfarin. You don't need me to tell you that. Every teacher and preceptor you've had since you started school has been drilling that into your head.
However you've probably also noticed that few will actually tell you how to dose warfarin. Sure, you learn about purple toes and birth defects, but that doesn't tell you what to do when your patient's INR is 5.6.
Read MoreImagine it's your first week of an APPE rotation at an anticoagulation clinic. You're excited and a little nervous. You've been brushing up on your Lovenox. You've read all you can about Eliquis and Xarelto and Pradaxa (oh my!). You're ready to impress.
Then there's the elephant in the room that is warfarin. Sure, you know lots about it. You can rattle off facts about VKORC1, and R and S enantiomers. You know that the pills are color coded by strength.
But how do you actually dose warfarin? If you're like most of us, you probably don't feel adequately prepared to jump right into managing wafarin therapy with what you learned in the classroom.
Read More
