Purple Pen Podcast

Listen in to round out our conversation about anticoagulation, by hearing from two Anticoagulation Stewardship Pharmacists - Hadley Bortz from the Alfred in Melbourne and Julianne Chong from Concord Hospital. Find out more about ACS programs in Australia and overseas and the benefits that these programs can bring to your health service. Anticoagulant patient care plan Anticoagulation Forum Advancing Anticoagulation Stewardship: A Playbook CATAG Medicines Stewardship Toolkit 

Join us as we talk with Prof Prash Sanders about the role of anticoagulation for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), learn when patients should be screened for AF, how to perform a stroke risk assessment and strategies to reduce the risk of bleeding.  This podcast is in collaboration with Medcast and the Quality Use of Medicines Alliance, a provider of health professional education in Australia focused on the quality use of medicines. Check out their resources here. Clinical guide: Anticoagulant management for AF Anticoagulant patient care plan Prof Prash Sanders is a cardiologist and electrophysiologist with a focus on heart rhythm disorders, particularly atrial fibrillation. He graduated with Honours from the University of Adelaide and completed advanced training in Melbourne and Bordeaux, France, earning national and international recognition for his research and clinical expertise. He is the Clinical Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and holds the Knapman – National Heart Foundation Chair of Cardiology Research at the University of Adelaide. Dr Sanders has published over 600 papers and is a leader in advanced ablation techniques. He consults and performs procedures across multiple hospitals and regional clinics in South Australia. Jarrah is a clinical pharmacist with a passion for education and quality use of data. He has led national health programs, including GP audit and feedback initiatives and Indigenous health nKPIs. He is currently clinical lead at MedCast, supporting best practice care through the Quality Use of Medicines Alliance.  

Naloxone has been available in Australia without prescription since 2022 (after pilot programs through 2019-2021, analysis showed this trial saved 3 lives per day). Join us as Kristin and Nat talk naloxone with Pharmacist Emily Turkovic. Emily shares her personal story and why she is passionate about ensuring that naloxone is widely available in our community. Listen in for tips and tricks on how to broach the subject with patients and ways to de-stigmatise naloxone. Resources: Opioid Safety Toolkit Free Take Home Naloxone training program Find out more about the Take Home Naloxone program here. Take Home Naloxone Program Resources

Listen in as Kristin chats with Dr Ian Heslop about the health care needs of travellers, covering topics such as traveller’s diarrhoea, altitude sickness and more. Listen until the end to find out what Ian brings in his travel medicine kit! Ian is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle and has a strong background in Hospital Pharmacy and in academia. He was involved in the establishment of the Bachelor of Pharmacy program at James Cook University in Townsville - and whilst teaching at JCU, he completed his doctorate in travel health.

Listen in to our latest episode as Kristin chats with Chelsea Felkai about being a healthcare provider for patients with intellectual disability. Chelsea is a community pharmacist who is completing her PhD at the University of Newcastle. You can find resources relating to the provision of inclusive healthcare and the NSQHS Standards User Guide for the Health Care of People with Intellectual Disability that Chelsea refers to in the podcast here. Other resources include: PSA Medicine safety: disability care report https://www.psa.org.au/advocacy/working-for-our-profession/medicine-safety/disability-care/  Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care - https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/intellectual-disability-and-inclusive-health-care  Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031 - https://www.disabilitygateway.gov.au/ads/strategy  NDIS - https://www.ndis.gov.au/ NDIS – Consumables - https://ourguidelines.ndis.gov.au/would-we-fund-it/consumables  Guardianship Division - https://ncat.nsw.gov.au/how-ncat-works/ncat-divisions-and-appeal-panel/guardianship-division.html  Behaviour Support Plans - https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/rules-and-standards/behaviour-support-and-restrictive-practices  Easy Read - https://pwd.org.au/resources/easy-read-info/  Ten Principles of Good Prescribing (British Pharmacological Society’s Principles for Good Prescribing 2010) Maudsley deprescribing guidelines for antidepressants, benzodiazepines, Gabapentinoids, and Z-drugs. PHARMACISTS OPTIMISING MEDICINES IN PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY AND AUTISM (POMPIDA) – Facebook group Public Hearing Report – Hearing 6 (Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability)

Join Natalie as she chats with Dermatologist A/Prof Deshan Sebaratnam about the management of acne. Listen in as they chat about over the counter treatment options, what may have changed in acne management and the effectiveness of isotretenoin. A/Prof Sebaratnam, in addition to his private practice, as a specialist dermatologist at Liverpool and Dubbo Base Hospitals in NSW.

Tune in as Dr Sayontonee Ghosh gives an overview of TB including: Transmission  Diagnosis  Screening Symptoms  Treatment options 

Did you know that PPIs are one of the most commonly prescribed medications in Australia according to PBS data? Join Kristin for a deep dive into proton pump inhibitors as she chats with Gastroenterologist, Hepatologist and Gastrointestinal endoscopist, Dr Kostas Brooks. What dose PPIs should patients actually be taking? How do you manage rebound symptoms? Listen in to find out.

Join Kristin as she chats with Dr Gaurav Sutrave to chat about emergening treatments for fungal infections.  Gaurav is a Staff Specialist Haematologist and Transplant and Cell Therapies Physician at Westmead Hospital, as well as the Medical Director for the Westmead T cell Therapies Laboratory.

Join Kristin and Nat as they chat with Shaylee Mills, The Rural Pharmacist. Shaylee works in the beautiful Pilbara region of WA - google it - the scenery is spectacular! Although it is at least 17 hours drive from the nearest capital city (Perth) - Karratha is far from a small town and is home to around 22000 people. Shaylee shares what her world as a pharmacist looks like and some of the benefits (and challenges) of working rurally. You can find Shaylee here and don’t forget to give Purple Pen a follow too!

Check out our latest episode as Kristin and Nat chat with Dr Jeremy McAnulty about the work undertaken by Public Health Units. If you are from NSW, you may remember Dr McAnulty from the daily televised COVID updates  - Dr Jeremy McAnulty is a public health physician and Executive Director of Health Protection NSW at NSW Health, overseeing the statewide public health aspects of communicable disease control and environmental health. From 2020 to 2022 he headed NSW Health’s COVID Public Health Response Branch.

Join Kristin for a deep dive into meningococcal disease with Dr Anita Campbell.  Learn more about the various strains of meningococcal and their prevalence patterns in Australia and how that might impact the way we think about vaccination for meningococcal, using Men B as an example. Dr Anita Campbell is a clinician researcher working as a paediatric infectious disease specialist and medical lead of the Stan Perron Immunisation service at Perth Children’s Hospital.

Join us for a very special World Pharmacist Day edition of the Purple Pen Podcast.  Recorded live during pharmacy wellbeing week at Monash Health, Nat & Kristin reconnect with Jane Booth and Karlee Johnston to talk about Pharmacist Wellbeing.  We explore the concepts of empathy, vulnerability, burnout and restorative supervision. Our guest, Dr Karlee Johnston, is a clinical pharmacist with extensive experience in critical care and winner of the SHPA - Australian Clinical Pharmacy award in 2023. Karlee’s PhD focused on the experiences of Australian pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a specific interest in burnout in this cohort. Following from this research Karlee has continued to research burnout and possible interventions to better support healthcare professionals in their work.

Join Kristin as she chats with Rebekah Moles about fever. Rebekah is an Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice at the University of Sydney and she is passionate about quality use of medicines in paediatric patients. She has conducted research on the management of common ailments such as fever and cough/cold in young patients.

Join us as we talk with Dr David Liew about the underappreciated condition of gout, dispel some myths and talk about what's changed in recommendations.  This podcast is in collaboration with Medcast and the Quality Use of Medicines Alliance, a provider of health professional education in Australia focused on the quality use of medicines. Check out their resources here.  Arthritis Australia have further information on gout here. The 2015 study by Philip C Robinson is here An Observational Study of Gout Prevalence and Quality of Care in a National Australian General Practice Population 

Kristin is joined by Professor Sanjay Swaminathan to talk all things MABs or monoclonal antibodies. Dr Sanjay Swaminathan is a Clinical Immunologist and Allergist, he is a Senior Staff Specialist and Head of the Department of Immunology and Allergy at Westmead and Blacktown Hospitals.

Prof Asha Bowen is back to discuss Impetigo (also known as school sores), an infection of the skin caused by bacteria. Observational studies over four decades in northern Australia have found that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living in remote communities have the highest burden of impetigo worldwide. Prof Asha Bowen is a paediatric infectious disease specialist and clinician-researcher at Perth Children’s Hospital and Telethon Kids Institute. She is Head of Department of Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital. National Healthy Skin Guidelines can be found here

RSV season is upon us, and there are a number of new exciting developments in the prevention of RSV to discuss! Listen in, as Prof Asha Bowen chats to Kristin and Natalie about the newest innovations in RSV immunisation and vaccination. Prof Asha Bowen is a paediatric infectious disease specialist and clinician-researcher at Perth Children’s Hospital and Telethon Kids Institute. She is Head of Department of Infectious Diseases at Perth Children’s Hospital. ATAGI statement in the use of Arexvy in older Australians NCIRS FAQs relating to RSV Information relating to WA RSV Immunisation Program Information relating to the QLD RSV Immunisation Program Clinician Guide to the NSW RSV Immununisation Program

Join Kristin as she chats with A/Prof Esmita Charani, PhD, MSc, MPharm, MRPSGB, about the way clinicians think and feel about antibiotic use, and in particular how these beliefs can impact their response to various antimicrobial stewardship interventions.  Esmita also shares her research journey into broader human rights issues including bias and imbalance in low and middle income countries. Esmita is an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town where she is undertaking a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellowship investigating intersectionality and AMR (2023-2027). In the UK, she is an Honorary Reader in Infectious Diseases, AMR and Global Health at the University of Liverpool. She is a visiting Researcher at Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen Norway, and Adjunct Professor at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kerala India, where she is involved in helping implement and investigate national antibiotic stewardship programmes. Her work in AMR has been recognised through the Academy of Medical Sciences UK-India AMR Visiting Professor award. She is involved in mentoring and supporting clinical pharmacists across different healthcare settings and economies in implementing antimicrobial stewardship interventions.

Join Kristin as she talks with Dr Mark Horowitz about how to deprescribe psychotropics like antidepressants, what is known about the causes of depression, what evidence is behind the antidepressants commonly used, what the symptoms of antidepressant withdrawal look like and the origins of the phrase "it's Bedlam here." The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines: Antidepressants, Benzodiazepines, Gabapentinoids and Z-drugs are available for purchase here:  https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Maudsley+Deprescribing+Guidelines%3A+Antidepressants%2C+Benzodiazepines%2C+Gabapentinoids+and+Z+drugs-p-9781119823025  This podcast has been released to co-incide with MedsAware which is SHPA’s Deprescribing Action Week, 18-24 March 2024 - find out more here: https://www.shpa.org.au/news-advocacy/MedsAware