Blue sky? Check.

Clear lake? Check.

Super slow Internet connection? Check.

New digital camera dumped in the above lake? Check.

As promised, and not threatened, I am on vacation this week. Was just in Seattle (had a blast) am now in McCall, ID for a few days. Will head to Sun Valley shortly and then back to Schenectady, NY for my Grandma-In-Law's 100th bday. Whew.

I have another appeal letter to post (Tue/Wed), but I thought I'd send these two items along before that. Dr. Stoller shared this first one with me (and if you were a SOAPM member, you'd already know about it). Apparently, there is some confusion related to FluMist distribution and here we have, from the proverbial horse's mouth, the scoop.

Hello Dr. Stoller,

I hope all is well. As you may have heard, MedImmune is very pleased to have begun shipping our initial lots of FluMist for the 08/09 season. Currently we have shipped 500K doses to our distributors for dissemination to pediatric offices. Unfortunately, some offices have logistical concerns with the early release of product. As a member of the SOAPM committee I wanted to provide you with the details of our replacement program should you receive questions or communications like the one below.

Because FluMist does not contain a preservative, two of the initial lots will be set to expire in mid-November. Offices with private doses that expire before January 31, 2009 will be able to replace unused FluMist doses through their distributor provided that they notify the distributor before January 30th 2009. This virtually eliminates the risk of wasted FluMist doses due to expiry before the replacement date. I say virtually because the distributors reserve the right to round down the replaced doses to the nearest tenth. For example, if an office were to take in a portion of their doses now but were unable to use 32 doses before expiration, they will be able to replace 30 doses with their distributor.

Fortunately, many pediatric offices see the value in being able to immunize their patients during the summer months and school physicals. This opportunity also allows NJ pediatricians to better address the State mandate for children entering licensed preschool and daycare facilities. The duration of protection demonstrated in FluMist clinical trials also makes dosing during August / September timeframe a safe and sensible option.

Please contact me directly if you have any questions about the replacement program or suggestions regarding how we can help improve the FluMist ordering process for physicians.

Best Regards, Tony

Tony Diorio

Area Business Manager

MedImmune Inc.

The second item of interest comes from AAP Presidential Candidate, Dr. Kraft:

Vaccinate Your Baby PSA Videos

Two things to note here:

• These are the Amanda Peet videos and can be linked to on your practice WWW page as well as easily distributed to your patients. For those of you who have attended my Patient Education Materials talks, this is exactly the kind of tool I find has a lot of success.
• For the same reason I supported Dr. Tayloe, I support Dr. Kraft now: she is a real, practicing pediatrician who takes time out of her day to get the word out to anyone who might benefit - in a practical manner. Thanks, Dr. Kraft.