NPS Member Update
18
April 2008
In this issue
1. National
Medicines Symposium
2. NPS
Facilitators' Forum
3. Common colds campaign 2008
4. 2020
5. Consumers want to hear from HPs about their complementary
medicines
6. Introducing
the latest Pharmacy Practice Review
7. NPS News: Focus
on chronic heart failure
8. MedicinesTalk: Medicines
and your money
9. Medicine Update
10. Australian Prescriber
11. NPS RADAR
12. Member organisation
contribution: Rural health project grants
1.
National Medicines Symposium
The National Medicines
Symposium for 2008 is less than one month away and the final program will
stimulate much discussion and debate among delegates.
Four international
speakers will cover topics on QUM and the ageing world; medicines, consumers
and society; and
NMS 2008 will be a great
event for networking with new contacts from across the health spectrum. If you
have not already registered, visit the NPS website at www.nps.org.au and click on the NMS
banner.
2.
NPS Facilitators' Forum
More than 90 NPS
Facilitators representing internationally acknowledged, best practice QUM
educators from every
The theme for this year
is Leading the QUM challenge: integrity, balance and excellence
in recognition of the pioneering efforts of NPS Facilitators, who are at the
forefront of QUM in
A thought-provoking
program has been developed, featuring international speakers (who are also
attending the National Medicines Symposium), as well as Australian leaders in a
variety of relevant fields.
Plenary topics will
include a presentation and open forum on navigating for successful outcomes, as
well as an interactive session on influencing others while maintaining your
balance. There will be five concurrent workshops on offer for delegates,
ranging from interpreting clinical information and presenting evidence, to
overcoming cognitive dissonance, developing useful relationships with local
media, and a 'how-to' on writing abstracts and developing posters for clinical
and scientific events.
3.
Common Colds campaign 2008
NPS is now gearing up for its annual Common
colds need common sense, not antibiotics health campaign. This year's campaign will run in two phases.
Phase 1 will launch in late May and focus on hygiene messages, while phase 2
will launch in August and focus on antibiotics messages (August is a peak month
for antibiotic prescriptions). NPS is currently updating recommendations for
over-the-counter medicines and complementary medicines.
Target audiences include:
·
Parents of young children
·
Childcare centre staff (more than 500 centres have nominated to receive
a presentation from a health professional or will conduct a presentation
provided by NPS)
·
School communities (to reach parents of primary-school-aged children)
·
Women aged 18-34, who have been observed to have less desirable
attitudes to using antibiotics for colds.
NPS will partner with Ross and Julia Ross
recruitment services for the second consecutive year as part of its efforts to
expand the Common colds campaign into Australian workplaces.
The 2008 Common
colds need common sense, not antibiotics website will soon be live: keep
watching the NPS website for updates.
4.
2020
NPS has prepared a QUM submission for the long-term
national health strategy discussion at the April 2020
The submission will become accessible online at www.australia2020.gov.au
5.
Consumers want to hear from HPs about their complementary
medicines
Preliminary results from NPS research are showing
that most consumers ask friends and family when it comes to complementary
medicines, while in fact they would prefer to get this information from their
doctor or pharmacist. In addition, seeking information about complementary
medicines on the internet has become common practice among consumers.
At the International Congress on Complementary
Medicine Research in
More information about further research on complementary
medicines is available on our website.
6.
Introducing the latest Pharmacy
Practice Review
Enrolments are now open for 'Enhancing patient care
in type 2 diabetes' - the latest Pharmacy
Practice Review - a counselling and action resource.
This review aims to assist pharmacists in managing
patients with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, using an antidiabetic agent(s).
Pharmacy
Practice Reviews use best practice standards and guidelines to help
pharmacists review current practice, consider implementing changes to practice,
review and reflect on these changes and monitor progress. The materials also
focus on identifying priorities for patient counselling, provide tools to
assist effective counselling and identify pharmacist competencies, which will
be addressed by completion of the activity.
All participants receive a feedback report that
includes individual results, aggregate results of all participants' practices
and an expert commentary on those aggregate results.
Pharmacists can enrol now either online or via an
enrolment form to receive the Pharmacy
Practice Review materials in May. This program is recognised for Continuing
Professional Development points by several NPS member organisations.
Details: https://www.nps.org.au/resources/content/PPR_enrol_type2diabetes.php
7.
NPS News: Focus on
chronic heart failure
NPS
News 57 (April 2008) is titled Improving
outcomes in chronic heart failure.
Chronic heart failure is a progressive disease
mostly affecting people aged over 65 and the prevalence increases sharply with
age.
This issue of NPS News highlights the importance of early
detection and patient support to maximise the benefits of drug therapies at all
stages of chronic heart failure. Topics include targeted education and
multidisciplinary support, use of ACE inhibitors as first-line therapy for
chronic heart failure, and use of heart-failure-specific beta blockers in all
stabilised patients.
NPS
News 57 also includes Case Study 52:
Optimising chronic heart failure therapy for GPs, pharmacists, nurses and
other health professionals.
These
NPS materials form part of a joint program with the National Heart Foundation
of Australia and the NHMRC National Institute of Clinical Studies to improve
the management of heart failure.
8.
MedicinesTalk: Medicines and your money
Medicines
can swallow a substantial chunk of the family budget, so the Autumn 2008 issue
of the NPS consumer publication, MedicinesTalk,
provides some excellent tips on how to reduce spending on medicines without
compromising your health.
Recommendations
include having your medicines reviewed, considering generic medicines and
asking about a different strength medicine. Consumers are also urged to
understand the Safety Net and authority prescriptions. This issue includes
useful information about the potential for medicine interactions, new medicines
and Medicines Line - which provides independent information for consumers by
qualified pharmacists at the cost of a local call.
Read MedicinesTalk online or visit the NPS
website to order one or more hard copies.
9.
Medicine Update
The latest issue of Medicine Update reviews strontium
ranelate (Protos), a medicine used to treat osteoporosis, or fragile bones. It
can be used by women who have already had a fracture due to osteoporosis and by
those who have not, but are at high risk.
Medicine Update
is an NPS publication that helps to answer some of the questions commonly asked
about medicines when they first become available through the PBS.
Medicine Update
gives important information about how to use the medicine, as well as how it
compares with other medicines for osteoporosis. If this topic is relevant to
your membership, we would be happy to provide a copy in PDF format for
uploading to your website.
10.
Australian Prescriber
This
month, Australian Prescriber presents
the following articles:
·
Compounding in community pharmacy
·
The role of drugs in road safety
·
Treatment of perinatal depression - and patient support information for
perinatal depression
·
Ear drops and ototoxicity.
Additional features include:
·
Book review of Therapeutic
Guidelines: Analgesic
·
Abnormal laboratory results: Therapeutic drug monitoring - which drugs,
why, when and how to do it
·
Corticosteroid-induced osteoporosis and fractures
·
New drug reviews on: lenalidomide, nilotinib, paliperidone, raltegravir,
rotigotine, sitagliptin
Australian Prescriber can be
read online at www.australianprescribercom.au
11.
NPS RADAR
New drugs reviewed in-depth in the April issue of NPS RADAR are fentanyl lozenges (Actiq),
an oromucosal formulation for the control of breakthrough cancer pain, and
paliperidone (Invega) for people with schizophrenia.
The first review
notes when fentanyl lozenges are to be used and asks doctors and
pharmacists to be aware of important safety issues.
Paliperidone is the major active metabolite of
risperidone. In its review, NPS RADAR
states that the clinical response to paliperidone is likely to be similar to
that of risperidone, but there are no comparative data.
The April print issue includes an update on the
extended PBS listing for pioglitazone (Actos) in the treatment of type 2
diabetes and the review of varenicline (Champix) for smoking cessation, which
was published on the NPS RADAR
website (www.npsradar.org.au) in
January.
This issue also carries brief reviews of:
·
Methylphenidate (Ritalin LA), a second long-acting formulation PBS
listed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
·
Smaller syringe volume influenza vaccine PBS listed for children aged
6-35 months
·
Terbinafine cream and tablets for fungal infections in Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander peoples.
12.
Member
organisation contribution: Rural health project grants
Rural community project grants are currently
available to develop and support community-run healthcare programs in rural and
remote areas. Grants of up to $20 000 are available for community projects
(which are no longer than 12 months in duration and must be completed by 31
March 2010) that integrate the support of local community pharmacy.
The Small Project Funding Scheme is an initiative
of the Rural Pharmacy Workforce Program (RPWP), which is funded by the
Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and managed by the
Pharmacy Guild of Australia. The scheme aims to support community healthcare in
rural and remote communities so that innovative ideas and services can be
developed and implemented.
All projects must be completed by
To be eligible projects are required to meet the
following criteria:
·
Demonstrate the capacity to provide ongoing benefits to the community
after completion of the program
·
Must involve a pharmacist or pharmacy-related organisation in the
proposal
·
Applicants must be Australian citizens.
The closing date for applications is 5pm Friday, 2
May 2008.
Interested persons or groups should contact:
Ms Michelle Quester
Program Manager, Rural Pharmacy Workforce Program
Pharmacy Guild
Phone: (02) 6270 1888
Email: michelle.quester@guild.org.au
More information and application forms are also
available at the RPWP website, www.ruralpharmacy.com.au
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