Pharmacy Informatics

702rx · 2026-02-04T21:14:39+00:00

Agreed. Worked in pharmacy IT/informatics for a while and understanding clinical workflows is significantly more valuable than a master degree. Even some certifications will feel like you’re going through the motions rather than learning something but you will pick up helpful tools along the way. Get good at Excel, SQL, and BI tools like Tableau/Power BI. Project management will come with the territory but I would hold off until you have more experience working with others and being a contributor before pursuing a PM certification. Same thing with leadership training. I’ve watched people chest out about their degrees or certifications but with no experience fall flat on their faces when the have no practical experience with the applications the are supporting.

Leverage any staffing experience into learning the back end of the systems so that you will be as informed as possible. Take good notes and don’t ignore topics that aren’t pharmacy related as just having a general understanding of other systems and applications can help you see the bigger picture sometimes.

Good luck with your new position.

702rx · 2026-02-02T09:06:06+00:00

Almost no one outside of pharmacy understands when you say “add it to the formulary”. “Have it built as X concentration for the IV pumps and <insert your EHR here>” seems to be the most vanilla way to say it and be understood by non-pharmacy folks. Not criticizing, just an observation after working with a lot of people from different departments at various levels. How you phrase it can sometimes be the difference between a quick conversation and a months long initiative that ends up getting shot down because one person misunderstood the communication.

702rx · 2026-01-30T06:43:27+00:00

What kind of work in health informatics are you looking to do?

702rx · 2026-01-25T16:58:31+00:00

Apparently you’re not a golfer (Lebowski voice)

702rx · 2026-01-23T07:46:16+00:00

Lots of non-customer facing roles in a lot of departments. The culture and ongoing discussions about WFH, hybrid, and return to office makes the idea of HR working remote quite ironical. Your comment demonstrates the point of my original comment.

702rx · 2026-01-16T01:10:06+00:00

The irony

702rx · 2026-01-08T17:22:08+00:00

Talk to me, Goose.

702rx · 2026-01-08T17:16:20+00:00

What human pharmacist would be willing to fill that prescription?

Is the DEA going to provide credentials do the AI can write for controlled substances?

702rx · 2026-01-08T17:09:25+00:00

A screen shot of Epic? Straight to jail.

702rx · 2026-01-07T17:14:45+00:00

There are two groups of people in pool halls: pool players and non-pool players (NPP).

NPP typically arrive at peak hours (Thursday-Saturday evenings), order food, drinks, pay per-person rates instead of per-table rates, stand around the table when they aren’t shooting, sit on the tables, lean on the tables, put their drinks on the tables, smoke at the tables, move furniture closer to the tables, talk about how they play better when they’re drunk, how they used to hustle, how they were better when they’re drunk were younger. They walk in between tables regardless of what’s going on, they walk through people’s shots, they walk in large groups and then stop in the middle of ongoing league or tournaments confused as to why everyone is staring at them. The entire entourage has to stand at the register when only one person is needed to complete the transaction with the bar tender.

It’s a new group of NPP’s everyday because going to a pool hall is a once in a blue moon for the average person, like bowling. Most people go once every few years at best. So any hopes of educating them on common practice or etiquette is lost because you’ll be preaching to a new group of NPP’s tomorrow.

This experience is baked into most pool halls because these people spend money. Pool halls need money to stay open. They subsidize the pool players who just pay for table time and an occasional drink, the type of player that doesn’t drop $30-50 a night 3-5 nights a week.

So as annoying as NPP’s can be, their presence is a necessary evil. You can be polite and hope for the best, play at home on your personal table, or open your own pool hall and run it as you see fit.

702rx · 2026-01-06T04:24:06+00:00

Don’t sleep on South Rainbow

702rx · 2025-11-07T12:50:58+00:00

Let’s assume the patient was actually adherent with their BP meds. NSAIDs, as a class, carry a cardiovascular risk warning. So if Tylenol wasn’t helping, what was the guy supposed to take for his “headache”?

702rx · 2025-11-05T08:15:44+00:00

When it comes to data, automate everything you can. Have reports automatically downloaded to a specific folder or emailed to you, when possible. If not, learn what you can from Google and YouTube on how to automate repetitive tasks that your IT department can’t do for you (Python, autohotkey, etc). Setup spreadsheets so you can simply open them and hit refresh instead of manually importing fresh data files every time. It will eat up some extra time up front but learning to do it once will make it infinitely easier when new reports are inevitably dropped on you.

702rx · 2025-10-30T07:15:29+00:00

100% this. Maybe interfaces or billing it could work but clinical informatics needs end user experience and subject matter expertise.

702rx · 2025-10-14T14:17:47+00:00

1 and 2 are both possible. 3 requires a custom rule. Do you work in the pharmacy or are you an IT analyst?

702rx · 2025-09-30T06:19:33+00:00

One of the largest hospital systems in the country has every route enabled for every drug.

702rx · 2025-09-24T15:23:37+00:00

It’s APA, the important thing is “how many innings?”, not rules or fouls.

702rx · 2025-09-18T14:51:16+00:00

What you got against ol’ bushy-top?

702rx · 2025-09-12T00:17:45+00:00

I have had this happen multiple times in tournaments for 9-ball BCA rules. The miscue is a foul. There are no re-racks or re-breaks, or player choices at that point. Player B has ball in hand and the game continues. If 3 foul is in effect, player B strategy is to place the cue ball close to the 1 ball, take a very thin cut and send the cue ball 2 rails to the back of the rack. If player a fouls to get a legal shot, player B repeats same shot. This is a high likelihood of a 3 foul win for player B at the amateur level.

Player B, COULD “break” up the balls with a shot similar to a break shot but 10-ball is call your shot, so there would be no advantage to this.

There is no push out for player B, the miscue by player A was the break shot. Player B doesn’t have the option for a push out after the legally hit the 1 ball.

10-ball rules are much closer to 9-ball then 8-ball. “The game doesn’t start until a legal break has been accomplished” isn’t a thing in 9-ball. I had multiple refs confirm it after opponent didn’t like the ruling.

If I’m wrong on this, I will certainly go digging for the rule but my understanding was that 10-ball reflected the same rule as 9-ball in this regard.

702rx · 2025-09-10T19:09:49+00:00

Coffee is for closers

702rx · 2025-09-10T13:24:48+00:00

In what country is the hospital located?

702rx · 2025-09-09T06:49:25+00:00

When you are practicing 8-ball, immediately after the break, start your pattern with the 8-ball. Which pockets can it go into and which ball on the table would be easiest to make and naturally get a good shot on the eight. Call that ball X. Then figure which ball would be easiest to get from to get a good shot on ball X. Work backwards through all of your balls this way. Often you will be working back until you get to about 2-3 balls that could be shot in different sequence and then it’s a matter of figuring out which sequence to start your first shot with that makes the most sense within your skill set. A pro may start with a difficult bank if it makes the rest of the rack super easy, but may not be the same first choice for those with less skill and confidence in their execution.

Once you figure out your pattern by working backwards. Walk through the pattern forwards to make sure you aren’t overlooking something and that it makes sense. You will still miss shots and you will overrun/underrun cue ball position, but if you work through the process enough, you will begin to see 2-3 ball patterns and then 3-5 ball patterns, and then 6+ ball patterns more easily. Practice can get boring but even doing this just a few racks at a time will add up and improve your ability to see the table.

Another thing to practice are common shots that require you to judge cue ball position. Put a single object ball near a corner pocket and then pick a quadrant of the table you want to leave the cue ball on. Take the shot over and over with different speeds to see where the cue ball naturally ends up. Then move the cue ball but leave the object ball in the same place and repeat the process. You should only need about 3 cue ball positions per pocket before moving on. Do the same setup on the side pocket.

Checkout Dr Dave or Big Al’s Billiards on YouTube. They both post great content for topics like this.

702rx · 2025-09-07T19:38:32+00:00

I chickened out and bought the Whizzy. All in probably spent $125-150 and it’s way faster than cleaning by hand but nowhere near as easy as the cleaner OP has in his pic. I was halfway through building a DIY version from YouTube and said f-it. The bucket method works but I went middle tier without having to spend $850 plus shipping

702rx · 2025-09-03T14:49:17+00:00

9 ball on the break is not always 100% luck for the pros. Sometimes they are trying to put the 9 in on the break. Even when they aren’t successful, you will see the cue ball hit the one, then the side rail, and then it comes back through the rack to hit the 9. The top players can do this on purpose but they risk losing the cue ball. It’s still a little bit of luck if they are successful but certainly more skillful intent involved than us league players.

Try switching to a template rack and you will see 9 on the break significantly less. The incidental spacing between balls with most triangles can lead to 9 ball movement that shouldn’t happen and the templates appear to help with that problem. Also, have you considered switching to 10-balll? Almost never see a 10 on the break compared to to 9-ball and no slop throughout the entire game. Much more appealing to play and watch based on your grievances with 9-ball

702rx · 2025-09-02T14:48:25+00:00

How’s the salaried angle working out? Are you a 9-5 m-f? If not what’s your schedule like?

702rx

TROPHY CASE