tl;dr pharmacy

No matter how much you memorize in school, guidelines and clinical practice will change. Here's a review of some of the bigger clinical breakthroughs we've seen recently

Clinical Trials That May Change What You Were Taught in Pharmacy School: Part 1 — tl;dr pharmacy You went to class. You memorized all those guidelines. You figured you were good to go for a while, right? Maaaybe, but more than likely there’s new published info since you took those tests! Let tl;dr give you a heads up on some of the biggest therapeutic breakthroughs of the last couple months. ...

Are you an RPD or a residency preceptor? Contact me to have your thoughts added to this post!

How to Stand Out as a Residency Applicant: An Insider's Guide — tl;dr pharmacy This post is sort of a "round up" of Residency Directors, Pharmacy Directors, and other influencers in the pharmacy residency sphere. In short, these are the people who interview you when you apply for residency. I asked each of them one question: "How can a pharmacy st

This is almost definitely something you weren't taught about in pharmacy school

The Pharmacist's Guide to Sickle Cell Disease — tl;dr pharmacy For most pharmacists, encounters with sickle cell disease are few and far between. However, if you work in a city (particularly if it's an international hub such as DC or New York), you will encounter sickle cell somewhat regularly.

You want to learn about insulin? We've got you covered.

Diabetes Management Part 1: Everything Insulin — tl;dr pharmacy We’ve talked oral agents. We’ve talked insulin pumps. But have you ever wondered what all of the various insulins are doing on the market and why we have so many? If so, come take this trip down insulin memory lane to learn about these medications and how to use them.

Also included: A review of Henderson-Hasselbalch. Let the nostalgia sink in!

NICU Series Part 6: Neonatal Pharmacokinetics and Infectious Diseases — tl;dr pharmacy Awww, you’ve waited 9 loooong months. You’ve had sleepless nights. You’ve done your homework, prepared by reading as much as you can, and you’re ready to welcome… an adorable bundle of NICU article joy ?!?! That’s right! After a bit of a hiatus, it’s time for tl;dr to return to our NIC...

This journal club might be music to your ears if you're tired of dealing with bicarb shortages or always expiring the old ones in your crash cart

The tl;dr Pharmacy Journal Club: Sodium Bicarbonate Use in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest — tl;dr pharmacy We’re winding down to the end of another year, which means it’s a perfect time for reflection. We’ve already recently admitted where we (as a profession) have perhaps been misguided with vancomycin dosing… So perhaps it’s time for us to admit yet another potential practice oopsy. Come refl...

Raise your hand if you have ever been personally victimized by the Group B Streptococcus (GBS) swab. 🙋

It may be uncomfortable, but it’s a super important piece of routine prenatal care! According to the American College of Gynecology (ACOG), about 1 in 4 pregnant patients carry GBS. Routine testing is recommended between 36 and 38 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether or not a cesarean birth is planned. Those who test positive may have antibiotics administered during labor to prevent transmission to the baby.

Even without intrapartum antibiotics, it is rare for a baby to get GBS. However, it can have very serious consequences when it does occur, including sepsis, pneumonia, and meningitis.🦠

Want to learn more about infectious diseases in neonates? Check out our BRAND NEW article: “NICU Series Part 6: Neonatal Pharmacokinetics and Infectious Diseases”.

Notice the “part 6” in the title? That’s right, there are FIVE (soon to be six!) other parts in the series! Might as well read ‘em all while you’re at it. 💁

Do you even anticoagulate, bro?

Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Hospitalized Medical Patients — tl;dr pharmacy While you’re working up that Cryptococcal meningitis or figuring out how to adjust vancomycin doses, don’t forget to assess VTE prophylaxis! Take a moment with tl;dr to make sure you’ve got your mental check list sorted for protecting your inpatients.

Everything you need to know about ACS in a neat and tidy little package

An Introduction to Acute Coronary Syndrome — tl;dr pharmacy We’ve covered several cardiology topics over the years in previous posts, including heart failure and LVADs, but we (and our guest posters) never quite mustered the courage to tackle Acute Coronary Syndrome. Until today. Today we bring you the tl;dr overview of ACS!

This is an awesome overview that will help you wrap your head around CINV...

Chemo-Induced Nausea and Vomiting (CINV) in a Nutshell — tl;dr pharmacy No matter where you practice, there’s a good chance that you’ll eventually come across CINV. Read this primer to get yourself up to speed.

NAPQI - The Silent Killer.

When Good Drugs Go Bad: Acetaminophen Toxicity — tl;dr pharmacy An over-the-counter medication as ubiquitous and readily available as acetaminophen MUST be totally safe, right? Well, not entirely… Come learn how this household name walks a fine line between friend and foe - and also what to do in the event of an overdose.

Did you know that 1 in 4 people have anemia? Find out how to treat it...

How Low Can You Go: A Clinician's Overview of Anemia — tl;dr pharmacy Sure, you may not think a low hemoglobin is all that pharmaceutically sexy… BUT guess what?!? There’s more to it than you might think! Take a few minutes to learn about some of the most common causes of anemia, and we bet you’ll be able to apply this to your patients every single day.

Anyone else sick of this summer☀️ heat and ready for fall? 🙋🍂

It’s not all that uncommon for people to experience some mild swelling in the feet or hands when it’s hot outside.

What is uncommon? Pitting edema. You know, the kind of swelling where the skin stays put after pressure is applied, kind of like a memory foam mattress?

Heart failure (HF) 💔 occurs when the ability of the heart to push blood forward is compromised. Blood backs up and can lead to fluid overload and edema in different areas of the body. Which area depends on whether we are talking about left or right heart failure. We’ll talk about this in the next quiz - No spoilsies! 🙉

Want to learn more about the signs and symptoms of heart failure? Check out part 2 of our (recently updated) HF series! Link in our bio.

Stay tuned for the next quiz in our stories and for part 3 (HF pharmacotherapy) of the series! This one may take a liiiittle longer to update since HF has changed significantly over the years.

There have been a ton of recent updates with RSV. Get caught up here:

What Every Pharmacist Needs to Know about RSV Prevention — tl;dr pharmacy Fever, runny nose, cough, congestion… If you sing it to yourself, it sounds a bit like that old Pepto-Bismol commercial (“Nausea, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrheaaa!”). Or maybe that’s just us being pharmacy nerds. Regardless, these are surely not a fun constellation of symptoms, especia...

There was a recent update in the STI Guidelines (the first update in 6 years). Get yourself up to speed with the latest recommendations.

The Pharmacist's Guide to Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) — tl;dr pharmacy There was a recent update in the STI Guidelines (the first update in 6 years). Get yourself up to speed with the latest recommendations.

Because someone HAS to think of the children!

NICU Series Part 1: Respiratory Issues in Premature Neonates — tl;dr pharmacy After a bit of a break from the world of pediatrics, tl;dr is diving back in! And we’re diving not just into general pediatrics but the specialty world of neonates. (We don’t play around here. Go big or go home, right?). So come with us for the start of our first ever NICU mini-series with a pos...

Because you probably don't have time to look this info up when you actually need to use it....

The Pharmacist's Dos & Don'ts of Rapid Sequence Intubation (RSI)  — tl;dr pharmacy As pharmacists, there are maaaaany topics for which we have the luxury of time to investigate and double check answers. (You know we love that lovely phrase, “I’m not sure, but I’ll look it up and let you know.”) That being said, there are also some situations in which this extra time just i...

Awesome (and in-depth) overview that will level up your med rec skills

How to do a Medication Reconciliation — tl;dr pharmacy If I was to describe med rec to my non-healthcare system mom, I’d tell her that it’s a term used to encompass all the decisions made about a person’s medications when they change level or location of care

A complicated topic like this calls for some tl;dr TLC.

An Introduction to Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) — tl;dr pharmacy We recently covered the basics of hematologic malignancies. But did you know that for some of these patients there is actually an option to try for cure rather than just management ? Check out how stem cell transplantation provides patients with an additional treatment strategy. Plus, learn about

MS is an intimidating topic to wrap your head around, but it doesn't have to be. Start here to get a solid foundation.

An Introduction to Pharmacotherapy for Multiple Sclerosis — tl;dr pharmacy Odds are that you may not have had a lecture on multiple sclerosis during pharmacy school, but this disease state is more common than previously realized. So you may very well encounter these medications at some point in your career. Plus, it is a HOT area for drug development with FOUR FDA approval

Finally, a fortune cookie that actually makes sense.

We had so much info on this that we had to split it into two posts. Here's part 2.

Pharmacogenomics and Precision Medicine Part 2 — tl;dr pharmacy We know it’s been a while since we first dipped our toes into the world of pharmacogenomics, but it’s time to take off the Crocs and dive right on in. In Part 1, we gave you the appetizer course of this fascinating side of pharmacy, and now we’re ready to serve some meat and potatoes. Come lea...

Rapid Sequence Intubation gets all the glitz and glamour...but what happens next?

The Pharmacist's Dos and Don'ts of Post-Intubation Sedation — tl;dr pharmacy Your patient has just had a breathing tube inserted down their throat, and now the countdown begins… when does the initial sedation wear off? How do you keep them from awakening and feeling that horridness!? Don’t get caught trying to figure this out on the fly. Let tl;dr teach you the need to k...

(Not so) fun fact: Most of the "standard" antiemetics that we use are basically ineffective against CHS

What Every Pharmacist Should Know about Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) — tl;dr pharmacy You’ve heard the saying that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Well, how is it possible that too much of an anti-emetic can be a pro-emetic, leading to cyclic vomiting? This is exactly the case in cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, cases of which are on the rise as legal access to mariju...

Almost everyone has a hard time wrapping their brains around leukemia at first. Here's a good place to start

An Introduction to Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) — tl;dr pharmacy Ready for yet another jam-packed clinical post? Good, ‘cause we certainly are! Which is why we’re ending July with this pediatric oncology post on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Come learn about this (too) common childhood cancer and what measures we’re taking to combat it.

If you've forgotten the difference between MIC and Breakpoint (or if you never knew in the first place), this post is for you.

What Every Pharmacist Should Know about Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing — tl;dr pharmacy Regardless of your pharmacist practice setting, whether it’s internal medicine, cardiology, oncology, etc., you will at some point in your career be asked to help choose an antibiotic based on your patient’s culture results. So how do you interpret that mix of numbers and S/I/R letters? How do y...

Did you know that commonly prescribed antiemetics such as ondansetron, promethazine, chlorpromazine, and metoclopramide are often ineffective for emesis resulting from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS)? 🤢

Small studies have shown that haloperidol and droperidol are more effective for relief of acute CHS-induced emesis than traditional antiemetic therapy.

Adequate hydration should also be achieved through IV fluid replacement, and capsaicin cream may be added to the regimen if the patient is still experiencing symptoms despite these interventions.

Want to learn more about CHS? Check out our brand new article titled “What Every Pharmacist Should Know about Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS)”. Link in bio ⬆️

This is one of our longer posts, but a super important deserves a lot of attention.

Acute Stabilization of Severe Bleeds Part 2: Initial Management of Traumatic Brain Injuries & Intracranial Hemorrhages — tl;dr pharmacy Pressure, pushing down on me, pressing down on you… Maybe Freddie and David were actually singing about what happens when that pressure pushes on the brain due to a bleed. Maybe. Ok, probably not, but it’s a ridiculously important question! In order to learn how to manage this critical situation...

Get the skinny on TPN (see what I did there?)

The Total Rundown on Total Parenteral Nutrition — tl;dr pharmacy Whether you’re a pharmacy student just encountering your first TPN calculations or a seasoned practitioner who maybe just hasn’t been responsible for nutrition in a hot second, this post is for you. Seriously. SAVOR it. DIGEST it.

Because sometimes you've gotta learn the newfangled way of doing things. Don't worry, it's not as bad as you think.

The Complete (but Practical) Guide to Dosing Vancomycin Based on AUC/MIC Targets — tl;dr pharmacy So you thought you knew everything about vancomycin pharmacokinetics, calculations, and dosing, right? Tl;dr gave you the ultimate guide a couple of years ago, and that was the end of the story... Well, unfortunately (or fortunately for patients), there’s a new dosing scheme on the block that seek...