Hear it here first: a year of the PJ Pod

This year marked The Pharmaceutical Journal’s first full year of producing The PJ Pod — and it was a successful year at that, with nearly 12,000 downloads in total.

Despite 2021 being dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic once again, our podcast episodes have spanned a wide range of topics.

In May 2021, The Pharmaceutical Journal’s deputy news editor Carolyn Wickware looked at whether Amazon Pharmacy really is a threat to community pharmacies in the UK, and in September 2021, features editor, Dawn Connelly, explored why the stomach acid-suppressing medicine, ranitidine disappeared from pharmacy shelves two years ago.

Our most listened-to podcast episodes, unsurprisingly, focused on the pandemic — in January 2021, Connelly, alongside executive editor, Nigel Praities, and clinical and science editor, Julia Robinson, recorded the second of a two-part series on the COVID-19 vaccine in which they attempted to answer readers’ questions using the latest available information and the help of some external experts.

The podcast also explored some of the most promising treatments for COVID-19, as well as the mental health impact of pandemic on pharmacists working on the front line.

In December 2021, The Pharmaceutical Journal’s news and views team came together to reflect on the year and make predictions for pharmacy in 2022 — including mention of a number of topics we will be covering in podcast episodes next year.

Here is the rundown of this year’s podcast episodes, in order of popularity, so you can catch up on any you might have missed:

1. Meet the mAbs: the new treatments for vulnerable patients with COVID-19

We take a closer look at monoclonal antibodies following news that pharmacists are likely to be involved in a new NHS service to deliver these treatments to patients with COVID-19 in the community.

2. COVID-19 vaccines: your questions answered

We answer another set of readers’ questions on COVID-19 vaccines and how the UK vaccination programme is being rolled out.

3. Is Amazon Pharmacy really a threat?

As Amazon Pharmacy gets a UK trademark, we look into how worried community pharmacies should be.

4. Pharmacy’s mental health crisis: building back better post-pandemic

A closer look at how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted pharmacy professionals’ mental health, both during and after the pandemic.

5. Proregs, the pandemic and a ‘new normal’ for pharmacy training

Here, provisionally registered pharmacists say how they are feeling in the weeks leading up to their long-delayed exam and we look at the long-term impact of their experiences.

6. Will ranitidine ever make a comeback?

Features editor Dawn Connelly asks why all licenses for ranitidine were suspended and whether it is likely to ever make a comeback.

7. Antidepressant withdrawal: Why has it been ignored for so long?

This podcast looks at the withdrawal symptoms that many patients experience when coming off antidepressants and what can be done to help.

8. ‘We are all fighting something’ — shattering the silence on hidden disabilities in pharmacy

In this podcast, we look at the problems pharmacists with a hidden disability face and what the profession can do to be a more inclusive place.

9. Pale and stale: decolonising the pharmacy degree

We take a closer look at what can be done to make the MPharm curriculum and the wider healthcare sciences more inclusive.

10. 2021 unwrapped: the year in pharmacy

In this episode, The PJ team review the past 12 months in pharmacy and share their predictions on what may happen in 2022.