9 June 2006

The Veterans’ MATES project, run by The Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Quality Use of Medicines & Pharmacy Research Centre, University of South Australia, has won the National Medicines Symposium Poster Presentation Category of the National QUM Awards 2006.

The award was presented last night at an awards ceremony held at Parliament House, Canberra and was accepted by Jodie Hillen.

The Veterans’ Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Service (MATES) project is data-driven, using patient-specific prescriber feedback to develop, implement and evaluate materials which provide practical advice to medical practitioners, pharmacists and veterans.

The National QUM Awards are an initiative of the National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) and the Pharmaceutical Health And Rational use of Medicines (PHARM) Committee in recognition of the achievements of a variety of projects, programs and activities within the Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) sector.

Highly Commended was awarded to Patricia Derrick, of the Mallee Division of General Practice for Managing Medicines in the Mallee: a rural community QUM project, which provides a structured program addressing requests from consumers for education on QUM within the Mallee Division of General Practice area.

QUM is one of the central objectives of Australia's National Medicines Policy. QUM means selecting management options wisely, choosing suitable medicines if a medicine is considered necessary; and using medicines safely and effectively.

The definition of QUM applies equally to decisions about medicine use by individuals and decisions that affect the health of the population.

“These biennial awards recognise the achievements of stakeholders in integrating QUM principles in their everyday activities,’ Dr Lynn Weekes, CEO of NPS, said. ‘The high quality of submissions gave the judging panel quite a challenge.’

Reflecting this, the judges made two special mentions in the poster category. Frances Vaughan and Sabina Knight of the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs were mentioned for their work, Pharacotherapeuics for Remote Area Nurses.

Leigh Laurence and Susan Parker, of Pfizer Australia were mentioned for their work, Improving device instructions – a customer focused approach.

The awards ceremony was held in conjunction with the National Medicines Symposium 2006 which concludes today.

ENDS