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Caution! Don’t consume alcohol, fruit juices while taking medications.

7/29/2020

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​Many times, people are unaware of the effects of drinking alcohol and fruit juices while on medications. 
caution dont consume alcohol fruit juices while taking medications
Certain medications such as anti-depressants, anti-blood pressure, anti-diabetics should never be mixed or consumed along with alcohol (not even 1-2 social drinks). Similarly, certain anti-blood pressure medicines and antibiotics should never be consumed along with fruit juices especially grape-fruit juice. Why so? There are three main reasons: 

Firstly because many drugs inherently interact with alcohol and/ or fruit juices (including natural juices). In technical terms this is called as drug-food interaction. What this means is that, the drug’s behavior on a patient’s body changes and it may not show the desired beneficial effect or cure. This is called In other cases, it may also show single or multiple adverse effects including vomiting, head ache, flushing, paralysis or even death.

Secondly, if a patient takes multiple medications (including vitamins and supplements), consuming alcohol or fruit juice along with medications can lead to potential drug-drug interactions inside a patient’s body. This can aggravate effect of one drug while minimizing effect of other drugs, producing toxic effects of one drug while the other drugs show no effect at all !  

Thirdly, if a patient takes a ‘Time Release” medication, consuming alcohol along with such medications might prove to be fatal. 

A time-release medicament is a hi-tech product. It typically contains 2 or more doses of the drug (or medicament) in a single tablet or capsule, which is programmed to automatically release appropriate drug doses at programmed time intervals. Alcohol damages this programming and the patient gets all doses in one go, scientifically referred to as ‘dose dumping’. And the adversity of toxic effects as a result of dose-dumping, will directly be dependent upon the extent of dose-dumping and may include headache, vomiting, skin rashes, difficulty in breathing, loss of vision, memory loss, paralysis and death. Since, each person’s body reacts differently to alcohol initiated dose-dumping, it is absolutely impractical to predict severity of adverse effects. 

Synonymous time-release formulations include- Extended release (ER), Modified release (MR), Controlled release (CR), Sustained release (SR), Prolonged release (PR), Delayed release (DR) etc. 

Time-release medications are available both as Prescription (for example Sedatives, Marijuana, Antidepressants, Opiates, Anti-diabetic, Anti-blood pressure, Antibiotics etc.) as well as Over- the-counter (OTC) products (such as Cold, Flu, Anti-allergy, Aspirin, Pain remedies etc). 

Regardless of the medicament being regular or a time-release product, if you take prescription or over-the-counter medications, ask your health care provider for advice about alcohol, fruit juice intake. An important point to note is that even herbal medicines and supplements can have adverse interactions with alcohol and/or fruit juices.

Such information about a particular drug product's potential interaction with alcohol, fruit juices, or any other hot or cold beverage can be displayed on the pharma manufacturing company's website. This is an un-met opportunity in Continuous Improvement of patient engagement process. 

Disclaimer- Readers are advised to please note that, the information contained in this article is NOT a substitute for medical advice. It is intended to empower general public to understand the pharmaceutical world and consider ideas and alternatives while discussing their specific health scenario with medical and pharmaceutical professionals. Please discuss your specific scenario with a qualified Medical Doctor and ONLY follow health advice given by a qualified medical professional. Also, please note that each country has its own health care related regulation(s), readers are therefore expected to over-ride any information presented here to adhere to rules of their land.
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Kaizen Training for R&D, Manufacturing and Service-based Organizations

5/2/2019

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A Kaizen Transformation roadmap will help you balance two worlds- the 'right now' and the 'next future'.

Top Experts in Kaizen Strategy Design & Training 

Kaizen Masterclass workshop by Dr Shruti Bhat
Kaizen Masterclass
To learn more about how Shruti can help your organization achieve new heights or to book a Workshop, Contact Dr. Shruti Bhat via Form or WhatsApp

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​Keywords and Tags:
#Kaizen  #KaizenTraining #KaizenLeaderMasterclass #ManufacturingExcellence #AgileKaizen #Lean #BPM #Manufacturing  #OrganizationalExcellence
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Popular Workshops & Webinars on 'Continuous Improvement' for Service Industries

2/14/2019

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Increase Customer Satisfaction, Service Efficiency and Reduce Product Returns with Lean, Kaizen and Other Continuous Improvement Methodologies.

Popular Workshops & Webinars on Continuous Improvement Conducted by Dr. Shruti Bhat for Service-based Companies-

Kaizen process efficiency improvement expert certification course by Dr Shruti Bhat
visual management workshop by Dr Shruti Bhat
Workshop on kaizen for healthcare by Dr Shruti Bhat
Workshop on Kaizen masterclass by Dr Shruti Bhat
Lean for service industry workshop by Dr Shruti Bhat
Agile kaizen for improving sales and marketing workshop by Dr Shruti Bhat

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About Shruti Bhat PhD, MBA, Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
 
Dr. Shruti Bhat is an award-winning Business Excellence Leader, Global Continuous Improvement Mastermind, Best-selling Author and Speaker. She is Continuous Improvement Advisor to several start-ups, mid-size and growing firms in Canada, USA, India, Africa and Emerging markets. She has authored eight business books and is an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, symposia and workshops.

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​Keywords and Tags:
#Manufacturing #ContinuousImprovement #QualityImprovement  #Innoworks  #eLearning  #ServiceIndustry   #ShiftingParadigms #BPM  #LeanManagement  #KaizenLeaderMasterclass  #LeanSixSigma  #Kanban 
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Continuous Improvement in Cancer Therapy & Healthcare System Services

1/23/2019

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Today I read a report in Stat News about the first ‘digital pill’ that has been rolled out at a Cancer Treatment center in Minnesota US. The report mentions how chemotherapy pills taken by cancer patients are packaged with a sensor that can alert a physician, pharmacist, or caregiver after the pill has been swallowed.

The report highlights that seven patients — all of whom have colorectal cancer in stage 3 or stage 4 and are being treated in Minnesota — have been provided with this treatment. The idea is that, by tracking when patients take their drugs, health care providers will be better able to ensure medication adherence and to provide treatment guidance, with the goal of improving health outcomes.

How does digital pill work?:

After patients swallow a chemo capsule, the sensor gets activated once capsule gets damp in the stomach fluids. The sensor then pings a signal to a patch worn by patients on their torso; which transmits data on the time of day, the size of the dose, and the type of medication taken to an online portal that the patient can view. If patients choose to allow it, their support team can access this database portal too.

This program in Minnesota appears to be the first one in which a digital pill has been used in oncology. So far, neither patients nor insurers pay anything beyond the typical cost of the medication for this high-tech upgrade.

This news sparked my interest for several reasons-

  1. As there is high proliferation of cancer disease world-wide, such digitization of cancer therapy will hopefully bring benefits to a wider population of cancer patients.
  2. Despite advances in Oncology, not everything about cancer is understood by researchers, doctors, patients and care givers. The resulting effect is that there is no cure for cancer, especially once cancer has metastasized or is beyond stage 2. Another peculiarity of cancer is that no two types of cancer are same, hence medications and their dosages administered to cancer patients are different. For example, dosage of Tarceva tablets prescribed for a lung cancer patient is different from what is prescribed for a patient with pancreatic cancer. However, the digitization platform done for chemotherapy of colo-rectal cancer can be researched further to extend to other cancer types, which can yield better patient compliance, superior therapeutic modeling and better treatment outcomes to a wider patient population.
  3. Additionally, this concept of  'digital pill' can be extended to other disease types too, where patient compliance has always been a problem; for example Tuberculosis, Schizophrenia, hypertension etc. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is worse to treat than regular TB. Hence, a digital TB pill will be  a boon for patients and doctors alike. Similarly, patients forgetting to take their blood pressure pill is usual, especially among older folks. Such non-compliance issues can hopefully be nipped in the bud with digital pharmaceuticals for hypertension.  
  4. Such digital pills can substitute the health system services which invest in phone calls and other reminders to patients to help them stay on track with their medications.

'Digital' pill is not only an impressive step in Continuous Improvement for Cancer Therapy, it is a significant step in Continuous Improvement for Health System services too! and, hopefully pave way for Continual Improvement in TB care, hypertension management and patient-centric drug product design.

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#ContinuousImprovement #QualityImprovement  #Innovation  #Quality  #Proteus #Oncology #PatientCentric  #DigitalPharmaceutical  #LifeSciences  #Drugs   #Cancer #TBCare #Hypertension
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Kaizen For Continuous Improvement Of Healthcare

12/3/2018

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Healthcare is a service-based business sector. Unlike other businesses, healthcare has a lot of human angle to it, since it deals with patients; people who are already traumatized with their ailing condition; sometimes having terminal illnesses. Hence, business process management in healthcare assumes significance. Conventional continuous improvement methodologies have known to decrease patient wait time, make efficient use of doctor's time in clinics, increased turnovers from operation theaters etc.

However, a limitation of conventional continuous improvement methodologies for healthcare is that they can deal with administrative or service processes only. Conventional continuous improvement methodologies either don't work for healthcare facility improvement or prove to be unpracticable due to high cost. That's where Kaizen steps in. Checkout this video ...
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#ContinuousImprovement  #Kaizen   #ServiceIndustry  #Healthcare   #LeanManagement  #KaizenLeaderMasterclass
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Kaizen For Innovation Management & Productivity Improvement Of A Hospital In France: A Healthcare Continuous Improvement Case Study

10/1/2018

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Healthcare is a service-based industry sector. Unlike other industries, healthcare has a lot of human angle to it, since it deals with patients; people who are already traumatized with their ailing condition; sometimes having terminal illnesses. Hence, work process improvement and/ or business process management in healthcare assumes significance.

Conventional continuous improvement methodologies have known to decrease patient wait time, make efficient use of doctor's time in clinics, increased turnovers from operation theaters by improving surgery schedules etc. However, a limitation of conventional continuous improvement methodologies for healthcare is that, they can improve administrative or service processes only. Conventional continuous improvement methodologies either simply don't work for healthcare facility improvement or prove to be unpracticable due to high cost (of implementation). That's where Kaizen steps in...

In this case study, Kaizen helped improve treatment and wound healing for burn patients at a hospital in France. It also expedited patient recovery by 33% and increased overall productivity of the hospital. 

Check out details of this case study in the video below...
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#ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen  #ServiceIndustry #LeanManagement  #KaizenLeaderMasterclass 
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Is your medicine cabinet stuffed with expired or medications you no longer use? Check out this post ...

7/27/2018

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Is your medicine cabinet full of expired drugs or medications you no longer use? How should you dispose of them?

Many community-based drug “take-back” programs offer the best option. Otherwise, almost all medicines can be thrown in the household trash, but consumers should take the precautions described here
https://www.fda.gov/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/EnsuringSafeUseofMedicine/SafeDisposalofMedicines/ucm186187.htm
 
Drug Disposal Guidelines and Locations in USA:

The following guidelines were developed to encourage the proper disposal of medicines and help reduce harm from accidental exposure or intentional misuse after they are no longer needed:

  • Follow any specific disposal instructions on the prescription drug labeling or patient information that accompanies the medicine. Do not flush medicines down the sink or toilet unless this information specifically instructs you to do so [Read More]

Related posts: 
  • How to dispose off expired medicines?
  • Do you choose your doctor correctly? How do you choose your medicines?
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