I got this email from a friend north of Portland, and it really made some sense to me. She sent this to the author of an online magazine article, then forwarded it to me.
While reading the article, I recalled a friend of mine telling me, a while back, he was writing software for a company called, PillHelp. From what I remember, and visiting the website, I suspect Heath would still be alive if his pharmacy subscribed to PillHelp services. If you would like to read about the solutions PillHelp provides for consumers, physicians and pharmacists: http://www.pillhelp.com What a great service you provide with your newsletter. I find it both enlightening and upsetting. Thank you
Interesting how this should come up. Many people think that PillHelp is only for old, sick, or illness-prone people who take tons of meds. In this case, she is probably right on the money, someone who was innocently taking medications within their prescribed parameters should still be alive. That’s the freaking point. A true MTM practice like PillHelp would most likely have saved this man’s life.
I admit, I wasn’t familiar with his work beyond Brokeback Mountain. I was a little old for many of the teenager movies he was in before that, which leads me to one final point: I’ll also admit that before we knew the cause of death, I was hoping it was something un-natural. I may not be too much older than he was (7 years?), but I do believe that healthy people around my age aren’t supposed to be dying, which is why we probably don’t take concepts like MTM to heart.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Speaking as an experienced pharmacist, while there may be more to the Ledger tragedy, polypharmacy (the mixing of many medicines and/or other substances including herbals and vitamins) is a huge problem. Only a pharmacist is specifically and highly educated to help consumers and prescribers avoid those risks. A growing number of us are making ourselves formally available to consumers and their physicians for one-on-one care and advocacy.
Medication adversities are one of the most expensive causes of avoidable injuries to consumers. Governmental and private data estimate that (non-hospitalized) consumers suffer 8.8 million adverse drug events per year, directly costing well over $75 Billion Dollars. The Institutes Of Medicine conservatively estimate the death toll to be 7,000 a year. The IOM says that figure includes only Medicare recipients. It also does NOT include physician samples and mix-ups by patients themselves.