For more than 10 years now RADAR has been providing health professionals with timely, independent evidence-based information on new drugs and medical tests and changes to listings on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Did you know that for selected RADAR review topics we also produce Medicine Update — a consumer companion publication that you can download for your patients?
Health professionals are constantly reminded of the value of printed information for patients to take from the consultation. While Consumer Medicine Information leaflets are available for most medicines these do not always address all patient concerns, especially for new medicines.
Medicine Update is designed to do just that. Written by the NPS MedicineWise Medicines Information team, each issue is road-tested with GPs, specialists and consumer reviewers. This ensures that Medicine Update consistently gives your patients easy-to-read, independent assessments of current information and research about new medicines and medical tests.
Medicine Update answers the key patient questions such as how well does it work, what are the potential side effects, how does it compare with other treatments, how much does it cost, is it suitable for me, and what non-medicine strategies could also help me?
Medicine Update empowers your patients to be part of the decision-making process, and helps the health professional cover these key areas of patient concern whenever a new medicine or test is being contemplated.
Medicine Update is published online at nps.org.au/medicine-update to coincide with each issue of RADAR, and a PDF can be printed for your patients to take home.
The ‘Information for patients’ section of a RADAR review displays a Medicine Update icon (see below) when a Medicine Update article is available. A companion Medicine Update is available for the full review in this issue of RADAR, Glycopyrronium bromide (Seebri) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Consider Medicine Update whenever you are searching for information for your patients. A full list of Medicine Update articles published since 2008 is available at nps.org.au/medicine-update.
