NEW YORK: Australian non-profit organisation, the National Prescribing Service Limited (NPS) has won a prestigious international 2008 Gold Quill Award for excellence in communication for its 2007 Get to know your medicines and Generic medicines are an equal choice national awareness campaigns.

The Award for Excellence in Communication Management – Multi-Audience will be presented to NPS by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) at the awards ceremony in New York on 23 June 2008.

NPS CEO Dr Lynn Weekes said, “Winning the award is an incredible achievement and a recognition of NPS’s commitment to excellence. I am immensely proud of the NPS staff who were involved in the campaign but would also like to acknowledge the pivotal role our partner organisations played in helping us to communicate these important medicines messages.”

Partner organisations included: the Consumers’ Health Forum of Australia, the Council on the Ageing (COTA), the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia (FECCA), Medicare Australia and a range of internal working groups comprising consumer, academic and health professionals. This is an example of a consumer-led campaign having strong impact.

Conducted from August to December 2007, the generic medicines campaign targeted senior Australians and was aimed at raising their confidence and understanding of generic medicines with a focus on safety, quality and choice. The integrated campaign included a range of strategies such as television advertising, a phone help line, printed resources, website and community information sessions. It also explained the principles of quality use of medicines (QUM).

IABC’s Gold Quill Awards program has been the hallmark of excellence in business communication for more than 35 years. The winners represent the best in organisational communication and their work plans serve as best practices for professional communicators across communication disciplines. This year’s competition was sponsored by Towers Perrin and received over 1,040 entries from 30 countries. Of these, 116 were selected to receive awards; 41 Awards of Excellence, 73 Awards of Merit and two student awards.

The Gold Quill entries went through two rigorous rounds of judging by a team of top senior communicators from around the world. The final selection was made by the Gold Quill Blue Ribbon Panel of judges at the IABC world headquarters in San Francisco in March. The winners are being honored at the Gold Quill Awards gala on 23 June at IABC’s International Conference in New York City. A select number of winning entries will be on display at the conference. To win the Gold Quill Award, NPS competed with peers from 30 countries including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, Chile, China, France, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, U.K. and the U.S.

“This Award is particularly sweet for us as this is our 10th anniversary year – it’s a lovely birthday present,” said Dr Weekes. NPS was established in 1998 with a mission to create an awareness, culture and environment that supports the quality use of medicines. Quality use of medicines include asking whether a medicine is necessary, if so, selecting management options wisely and using medicines safely and effectively. Today, NPS has a staff of approximately 120 people who run a diverse range of programs in partnership with health professionals, Government, community groups, industry and consumers.