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Community Update 18Community Update 18
May 2009
Welcome to the latest issue of Community Update, provided by the National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS). The NPS Community Update helps keep you informed about issues around medicines use as they relate to individuals and the community.National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) is an independent, non-profit organisation for Quality Use of Medicines. We provide accurate, balanced, evidence-based information and services to help people choose if, when and how to use medicines to improve their health and wellbeing. We are member-based and work in partnership with health professionals, government, pharmaceutical industry and consumers. NPS is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
In this issue:
News
- Refunding announcement — Government announcement of NPS budget
- NPS is planning ahead: four-year vision
- New fact sheet — ‘Lifestyle and medicine choices for better health’
- Translated information about generic medicines
- MedicinesTalk Autumn – looking after your medicines
- New Croatian Medimate
- Up-to-date NPS Medicines List — a personal experience
- Arthritis South Australia promotes quality use of medicines
- Profile: Faces in the community — Alison Marcus
Links to other helpful NPS publications
- RSS feed
- MedicinesTalk Autumn 2009 — articles to use in your newsletters
- Medicine Update — information about a selection of new medicines
Free information from NPS
News
Refunding announcement — Government announcement of NPS budget
The National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) will receive a funding enhancement from the Federal Government to expand programs that improve medicines use among Australians. The announcement in the Budget on May 12 included $21 million over four years in addition to NPS’s current funding, as well as $9.4 million over four years to run a national diagnostic requesting service.
‘This announcement acknowledges NPS’s role in providing accurate, independent information to health professionals and consumers. It also reflects the government’s commitment to integrative and preventative health measures that benefit all Australians. We are yet to determine the details of the diagnostics work with the Department of Health and Ageing but it is likely to reflect our successful quality use of medicines program model’, Dr Weekes said.
This includes decision-support tools, implementation of evidence-based guidelines, peer feedback and educational programs designed to assist health professionals and consumers make the best health decisions.
Further detail about the work NPS will be doing over the next four years is expected to be announced in coming weeks.
NPS is planning ahead: four-year vision
This is a period of change for the organisation, with the recent announcement of an increase in funding for the core program in our work with health professionals, plus a new program focusing on diagnostics. We are developing a four-year plan, which sets out the broad goals and strategies that we aim to achieve with the new funding.
Our broad goals build on our successes over the last 10 years, where we aim:
- to continue to improve medicines use where it will make the most difference
- to lead the expansion and development of quality use of medicines practices and approaches
- to continue to be an effective and responsive organisation.
We are developing strategies and programs that will contribute directly to these broad goals and ensure that we achieve the maximum benefit from our efforts.
New fact sheet — Lifestyle and medicine choices for better health
NPS has recently developed a new fact sheet for consumers called ‘Lifestyle and medicine choices for better health’. This resource emphasises the role of a healthy lifestyle in the prevention and management of chronic conditions. It focuses on a positive approach to risk factors such as quitting smoking, consuming alcohol in moderation, having a balanced diet, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.
Lifestyle changes may also mean medicines need to be reviewed, the dose might need to be changed or they may be able to be stopped altogether.
You can read the lifestyle fact sheet online. You can also order free hard copies online. Alternatively you can call NPS Customer Service on 02 8217 8700.
Translated information about generic medicines
As part of the 2008–09 Generic medicines are an equal choice campaign, a new translated brochure is available with information about generic medicines in simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese, Italian, Greek and Vietnamese. This bilingual brochure is now available to order or download. You can also access some other translated medicine information on the Generic medicines are an equal choice web pages.
This translated generic medicines information supports the recent radio announcements and interviews of bilingual health professionals run by NPS in partnership with the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA). The radio announcements and interviews ran in March and April in Cantonese, Mandarin and Italian on SBS Radio, Rete Italia, 2CR, 2AC and 3CW.
MedicinesTalk Autumn – looking after your medicines
In the Autumn issue of MedicinesTalk you can read about:
- The ABC of looking after your medicines
- Using medication organisers to keep track of your medicines
- How to using medicines safely and wisely
- And generic medicines information for people from Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese speaking backgrounds.
Read the latest issue of MedicinesTalk or order copies. For details see below.
New Croatian Medimate
The Australian Croatian Community Services have collaborated with NPS and FECCA to develop an online version of the Croatian Medimate. Other resources are also available online.
The beauty of an up-to-date NPS Medicines List — a personal experience
The NPS Medicines List helps people keep an up-to-date record of all of their medicines. Carrying a medicines list means, in an emergency, or during a visit to the hospital or a health professional, the medicines list can easily be referred to.
NPS partner organisations, peer educators and facilitators promote NPS resources and one NPS Facilitator recently had a personal experience that confirmed for her how handy the medicines list can be. Here’s Sue’s story*.
A medicines list provides space for the name, strength, indication, dosage, etc, of a person’s medicines, and is kept in a plastic envelope to be carried in a wallet or handbag.
This handy resource proved extremely valuable to my Dad when he was recently diagnosed with a rare cardiac condition and suddenly found himself in the hands of four specialists. This was followed by five hospital stays over the course of six months.
The Medicines List impressed the specialists, pharmacists and hospital staff in Dad’s healthcare team — they all welcomed it with a smile and a sigh of relief then rushed to photocopy it!
On one occasion, when Dad had to be referred to hospital by his GP in a semi-emergency situation, the GP attached an out-of-date medication record to the referral letter (printed from the doctor’s computer records). The GP had not had a chance to update the recent medication changes instigated by Dad’s specialists — that’s when Dad’s own updated Medicines List record came in really handy!
Dad and I added more information to the Medicines List, which also proved useful: his date of birth, medical history and a list of names and contact numbers of his GP and specialists.
In an environment where communication between our healthcare providers is not always timely, the Medicines List was one piece of information Dad’s healthcare team could consistently rely on.
This resource certainly makes life easier for the patient and their healthcare team, and hopefully helps avoid medication errors. The Medicines List is especially valuable for patients on multiple medications, with chronic or complex/multiple conditions, and with multiple healthcare providers. Hurray NPS for this wonderful resource!
This handy resource proved extremely valuable to my Dad when he was recently diagnosed with a rare cardiac condition and suddenly found himself in the hands of four specialists. This was followed by five hospital stays over the course of six months.
The Medicines List impressed the specialists, pharmacists and hospital staff in Dad’s healthcare team — they all welcomed it with a smile and a sigh of relief then rushed to photocopy it!
On one occasion, when Dad had to be referred to hospital by his GP in a semi-emergency situation, the GP attached an out-of-date medication record to the referral letter (printed from the doctor’s computer records). The GP had not had a chance to update the recent medication changes instigated by Dad’s specialists — that’s when Dad’s own updated Medicines List record came in really handy!
Dad and I added more information to the Medicines List, which also proved useful: his date of birth, medical history and a list of names and contact numbers of his GP and specialists.
In an environment where communication between our healthcare providers is not always timely, the Medicines List was one piece of information Dad’s healthcare team could consistently rely on.
This resource certainly makes life easier for the patient and their healthcare team, and hopefully helps avoid medication errors. The Medicines List is especially valuable for patients on multiple medications, with chronic or complex/multiple conditions, and with multiple healthcare providers. Hurray NPS for this wonderful resource!
The NPS Medicines List can be ordered or downloaded from the website or by calling NPS Customer Service on 02 8217 8700. The NPS Medicines List is available in English, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese.
*Not her real name.
Arthritis South Australia promotes quality use of medicines
In 2008, Arthritis South Australia (SA) successfully applied for funding from NPS under the Community Partners Program. Since then, Arthritis SA have embarked on a new project to improve access to information and education abut the management of musculo-skeletal problems, focusing specifically on medicines use for people with chronic pain.
‘People with arthritis often use at least one medicine so our role in promoting quality use of medicines was clear’, said project coordinator from Arthritis SA, Joan Lynch.
The goal of the project is to embed quality use of medicines (QUM) messages within the current services of the organisation. This includes:
- QUM fact sheets being included in the information packs which are sent to all callers of the Telephone Advisory Service
- Conducting community seminars on medicines management for chronic pain
- Providing translated QUM information sheets to participants at community meetings with culturally and linguistically diverse groups
- Promoting QUM messages in arthritis publications.
In addition to the general population, Arthritis SA has been specifically targeting the Greek, Italian, Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Adelaide. These culturally and linguistically diverse groups often have the most to gain by increasing their skills and knowledge of medicine management.
Some highlights of the project so far have been the completion of five community education seminars and holding a cultural competency workshop for all staff and volunteers of Arthritis SA.
‘Working with the local ethno-specific groups has been a great success. They have been keen to use some of the suggestions provided to better manage their medicines’, said Ms Lynch.
To find out more about the Community Partners Program or to discuss ways your organisation could promote QUM messages via existing programs contact Jill Morris at NPS on 02 8217 8700.
Profile: Faces in the community — Alison Marcus
This is the sixth article in this series profiling members of the NPS Community Quality Use of Medicines (CQUM) Working Group. The working group comprises consumers, health professionals, government and health promotion representatives, and provides strategic advice about reaching consumers to effectively share program information and messages about the best use of medicines.
Alison has a longstanding relationship with NPS, having attended an original Consumers Health Forum workshop even before the formation of the NPS Community Quality Use of Medicines Working Group. At that meeting Alison gave a presentation about her experience of using some common colds material from NPS with a group of older people in the Jewish community.
Alison was acting director of Jewish Community Services in Adelaide at the time and had ‘inherited’ a grant to run an activity on common colds. Confirming the message in the NPS materials, Alison cooked enough chicken soup (‘the Jewish penicillin’) to feed all of the seniors who attended. ‘I was so impressed with the messages and the clear way the materials were produced.’
A clinical nurse who has worked in a wide range of settings (metropolitan, rural, regional, remote, in acute care and others) she has a passionate interest in consumer health issues. It is her view that ‘adequate health literacy is needed to negotiate a system that is increasing complex: clinically, socially, politically and industrially’.
She says, ‘Concerned and involved consumers need to think, research, speak and act collectively to represent individuals and groups and so allow their interests to be heard in order to achieve equitable access to services’.
In addition to her role with the NPS Community Quality Use of Medicines Working Group, Alison currently has involvement with:
- the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare: Recognising and Responding to Clinical Deterioration Advisory Committee
- Pharmacy Guild of Australia: Promise III Advisory Panel
- NPS Adverse Medicines Events Line Governance Committee
- the TGA Child Resistant Packaging Sub-committee.
NPS RSS feed now available
Do you want to keep up-to-date with information about medicines? We know that consumers want to find information about medicines that is written in simple language, and about treatments for a certain conditions. They also want to know how to manage their health and/or their medicines, and to be able to share these resources with others. Our new-look website has been created with these things in mind.
If you would like to keep up-to-date about medicines, you (or your clients) can subscribe to an RSS feed or an e-alert and receive an email when new editions of Medicine Update and MedicinesTalk and other relevant materials become available.
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Links to other helpful NPS publications
MedicinesTalk Autumn 2009 — articles to use in your newsletters
Did you know that you can use MedicinesTalk articles in your newsletters?Simply reproduce the article in full and include acknowledgment of NPS and the relevant issue date: e.g. 'Reproduced with permission, National Prescribing Service, MedicinesTalk <issue month and year>'.
The Autumn 2009 edition of MedicinesTalk is now available. You can read about:
- Using medicines wisely and safely
- Generic medicines information for people from Italian, Greek, Vietnamese and Chinese speaking backgrounds
- The ABC of looking after your medicines
- Using medication organisers to keep track of your medicines.
Medicine Update — information about a selection of new medicines
The latest consumer publication from NPS, Medicine Update, provides information for people who are considering a new medicine, or have had a medicine suggested or prescribed for them and want to know more about it. It covers a selection of new medicines and medicines recently listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
When medicines are new, less is known about their expected benefits and possible harms than for medicines that have been available for some time. Medicine Update provides access to the available evidence to help people decide if a new medicine is right for them.
Current topics include:
- Zoledronic acid (Aclasta) a new once-a-year treatment for osteoporosis
- Tramadol for pain management
- Duloxetine (Cymbalta) for major depression
- Sitagliptin (Januvia) for type 2 diabetes
- Strontium ranelate (Protos) for osteoporosis in post-menopausal women
- Varenicline (Champix) for quitting smoking
- Fluticasone with salmeterol (Seretide) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Alendronate (Fosamax) for osteoporosis for preventing fractures in people with very fragile bones (low bone mineral density).
Your support in making Medicine Update available to the public will help create greater awareness of the quality use of medicines. You could post a PDF version on your website and mention it in your newsletter. Medicine Update is currently only available online. However, if you would like a limited print run, we are happy to discuss your requirements.
For a copy of the current editions, or to register to receive a copy, go to the Medicine Update web page.
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Free information from NPS
Order
NPS has many other free resources for use by community groups and health professionals.
To view and order NPS's extensive range of medicines information resources, go to NPS online catalogue.
For permission to reprint articles email us.
Subscribe
Follow these links to subscribe or unsubscribe from Community Update.
If you would like to keep up-to-date about medicines, you (or your clients) can subscribe to an RSS feed or an e-alert and receive an email when new editions of Medicine Update and MedicinesTalk and other relevant materials become available.
NPS and partner organisations actively engage with communities to encourage a greater understanding of medicines, as well as if, when and how to use them to improve health and wellbeing. This includes:
- information about how to select management options wisely
- if medicines are considered necessary, how to choose suitable medicines
- and how to store and use medicines safely and effectively.
The NPS definition of medicines includes prescription, over-the-counter and herbal and natural therapies (such as vitamins and supplements).
The quality use of medicines is a central objective of Australia's National Medicines Policy.
Date published: 2009-05-25 00:00:00
Reasonable care is taken to provide accurate information at the date of creation. This information is not intended as a substitute for medical advice from a qualified health professional. Health professionals should rely on their own expertise and enquiries when providing medical advice or treatment. Where permitted by law, NPS disclaims all liability (including for negligence) for any loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on or use of this information. Read our full disclaimer.
References to brands should not be taken as an endorsement by NPS.
