NPS MedicineWise

Last updated
NPS MedicineWise
Founded1998 (1998)
Type Not for profit
Focus Medicines, medical tests
Location
Locations
Area served
Australia
MethodEducational programs and professional development, public campaigns, publications
Employees
210+
Website www.nps.org.au
Formerly called
National Prescribing Service

Established in March 1998, NPS MedicineWise (known prior to 2009 as the National Prescribing Service) is an Australian not-for-profit organization whose programs are funded by the National Department of Health. Since July 2012, the organization has been officially known as NPS MedicineWise.

Contents

NPS MedicineWise provides practical tools (such as medicines lists), evidence-based information, and educational activities, with the intention of improving the way health technologies, including how medicines and medical tests, are prescribed and used.

Overview

NPS MedicineWise was founded in 1998 as part of an Australian Government shift in health policy to address issues around Quality Use of Medicines (QUM). [1] NPS MedicineWise' initial mandate was to reduce the cost of medicines to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by providing clinically reviewed independent information about medicines to doctors, pharmacists, and other health professionals. Many of these materials relate to new drugs or more complex grey areas in the prescription process.[ citation needed ]

Since 2003, NPS MedicineWise has assumed a secondary mandate: promoting discussion of basic medicine-related issues in the community via consumer education programs and major award-winning campaigns, including Be Medicinewise Week , launched in January 2011. The campaign has been broadcast across a wide spectrum of media channels and addressed common health issues such as lower back pain, antibiotics, and the active ingredient of medicines.[ citation needed ]

Although NPS MedicineWise has brought wide-ranging savings to the Australian health system, [2] critics have questioned the actual causes and ramifications of such savings. [3] However, the savings reported by the organization are comprehensively evaluated and accepted by the government, demonstrating a clear correlation between NPS MedicineWise programs and improved prescribing. [4]

Historical success

In the period between 1998 and 2004, 90% of all GPs were actively involved in one or more educational activities run by NPS MedicineWise, while approximately sixty percent of GPs and pharmacists rated its printed educational materials as good or very good.[ citation needed ]

NPS MedicineWise's activities have generated substantial financial savings for PBS, with the organization claiming that its information and education campaigns have reduced unnecessary prescriptions and improved prescribing decisions within the medical community. [2] Various health professionals argue that, despite potential conflicts between cost-saving and the organization's Quality Use of Medicines mandate, NPS Medicinewise will continue to improve on the current PBS system. [5]

NPS MedicineWise has also developed programs and resources to help consumers and health practitioners discuss health issues [6] and improve the QUM within Australia. [7]

Events

National Medicines Symposium (NMS)

NMS is the pre-eminent quality use of medicines symposium held in Australia. Held every two years, the scientific program is designed to provide the latest and the controversial in the medicines and health environment and is delivered by international and nationally acclaimed experts. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacist</span> Healthcare professional

A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who specializes in the preparation, dispensing, and management of medications. A pharmacist provides pharmaceutical advice and guidance, often serving as a primary care provider in the community, and offering other services, such as health screenings and immunizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacy</span> Clinical health science

Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links health sciences with pharmaceutical sciences and natural sciences. The professional practice is becoming more clinically oriented as most of the drugs are now manufactured by pharmaceutical industries. Based on the setting, pharmacy practice is either classified as community or institutional pharmacy. Providing direct patient care in the community of institutional pharmacies is considered clinical pharmacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prescription drug</span> Medication legally requiring a medical prescription before it can be dispensed

A prescription drug is a pharmaceutical drug that is permitted to be dispensed only to those with a medical prescription. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The reason for this difference in substance control is the potential scope of misuse, from drug abuse to practicing medicine without a license and without sufficient education. Different jurisdictions have different definitions of what constitutes a prescription drug.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) is a program of the Australian Government that subsidises prescription medication for Australian citizens and permanent residents, as well as international visitors covered by a reciprocal health care agreement. The PBS is separate to the Medicare Benefits Schedule, a list of health care services that can be claimed under Medicare, Australia's universal health care insurance scheme.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nurse practitioner</span> Mid-level medical provider

A nurse practitioner (NP) is an advanced practice registered nurse and a type of mid-level practitioner. NPs are trained to assess patient needs, order and interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose disease, prescribe medications and formulate treatment plans. NP training covers basic disease prevention, coordination of care, and health promotion.

An essential medicines policy is one that aims at ensuring that people get good quality drugs at the lowest possible price, and that doctors prescribe the minimum of required drugs in order to treat the patient's illness. The pioneers in this field were Sri Lanka and Chile.

Academic detailing is "university or non-commercial-based educational outreach." The process involves face-to-face education of prescribers by trained health care professionals, typically pharmacists, physicians, or nurses. The goal of academic detailing is to improve prescribing of targeted drugs to be consistent with medical evidence from randomized controlled trials, which ultimately improves patient care and can reduce health care costs. A key component of non-commercial or university-based academic detailing programs is that they do not have any financial links to the pharmaceutical industry.

The NHS treatments blacklist is an informal name for a list of medicines and procedures which will not be funded by public money except in exceptional cases. These include but are not limited to procedures which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has ruled of limited effectiveness and particular brand name medicines. In 2017 there was a proposal for 3,200 over-the-counter (OTC) drugs to be restricted and 18 procedures to be added to the list. This generated some controversy amongst doctors with some arguing that OTC should be blacklisted instead, and others believing the move did not take into account individual patient needs.

Many developing nations have developed national drug policies, a concept that has been actively promoted by the WHO. For example, the national drug policy for Indonesia drawn up in 1983 had the following objectives:

Pharmaceutical policy is a branch of health policy that deals with the development, provision and use of medications within a health care system. It embraces drugs, biologics, vaccines and natural health products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pharmacy (shop)</span> Shop that provides pharmaceutical drugs

A pharmacy is a premises which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacist oversees the fulfillment of medical prescriptions and is available to counsel patients about prescription and over-the-counter drugs or about health problems and wellness issues. A typical pharmacy would be in the commercial area of a community.

Electronic prescription is the computer-based electronic generation, transmission, and filling of a medical prescription, taking the place of paper and faxed prescriptions. E-prescribing allows a physician, physician assistant, pharmacist, or nurse practitioner to use digital prescription software to electronically transmit a new prescription or renewal authorization to a community or mail-order pharmacy. It outlines the ability to send error-free, accurate, and understandable prescriptions electronically from the healthcare provider to the pharmacy. E-prescribing is meant to reduce the risks associated with traditional prescription script writing. It is also one of the major reasons for the push for electronic medical records. By sharing medical prescription information, e-prescribing seeks to connect the patient's team of healthcare providers to facilitate knowledgeable decision making.

The term Quality use of medicines is used by the Australian government as part of their policies on effective and correct uses of medicine and access to appropriate medicines.

Online doctor is a term that emerged during the 2000s, used by both the media and academics, to describe a generation of physicians and health practitioners who deliver healthcare, including drug prescription, over the internet.

<i>Irish Medicines Formulary</i>

Irish Medicines Formulary (IMF) is a medicines reference for doctors, nurses, pharmacists and dentists, providing medicines information which is medico-legally relevant in Ireland. It is published in online and print formats, and lists original brands, branded generics and pure generic prescription medicines.

Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) refers to coordinated efforts to promote the optimal use of antimicrobial agents, including drug choice, dosing, route, and duration of administration.

Pharmacy in the United Kingdom has been an integral part of the National Health Service since it was established in 1948. Unlike the rest of the NHS, pharmacies are largely privately provided apart from those in hospitals, and even these are now often privately run.

Drug recycling, also referred to as medication redispensing or medication re-use, is the idea that health care organizations or patients with unused drugs can transfer them in a safe and appropriate way to another patient in need. The purpose of such a program is reducing medication waste, thereby saving healthcare costs, enlarging medications’ availability and alleviating the environmental burden of medication.

The Medication Appropriateness Tool for Comorbid Health conditions during Dementia (MATCH-D) criteria supports clinicians to manage medication use specifically for people with dementia without focusing only on the management of the dementia itself.

Geraldine Michelle Moses, is an Australian doctor of clinical pharmacy, a consultant pharmacist, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Queensland. She is a Senior Clinical Pharmacist at Mater Pharmacy Services in Brisbane.

References

  1. "About NPS MedicineWise". NPS MedicineWise. February 2019.
  2. 1 2 Wallace, Louise (4 March 2011). "NPS claims success in GPs prescribing less". Australian Doctor.
  3. "You're joking. Nearly all the reduction in prescribing is because of the threat of Medicare investigating us for not being below the 50th percentile. Nothing to do with balanced education and practical advice to GPs." Dr. I-M Suspicioustoo. http://www.australiandoctor.com.au/commentall.asp?artid=201782534
  4. O'Donoghue, Nick (18 February 2014). "Improvements in prescribing creates savings: NPS". Pharmacy News.
  5. Moulds R (2003). "Good prescribing: where to next?". MJA, 178:196-7. Available at http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/178_05_030303/mou10839_fm.html
  6. Weekes LM, Mackson JM, Fitzgerald M, Phillips SR. NPS: creating an implementation arm for national medicines policy. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2005;59:112-116
  7. Wutzke SE, Artist MA, Kehoe LA, Fletcher M, Mackson JM, Weekes LM. Evaluation of a national programme to reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections: effects on consumer awareness, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour in Australia. Health Promotion International 2007;22(1):53–64
  8. "National Medicines Symposium". NPS MedicineWise. 20 November 2017.