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As this is
an on-line service, NPS is able to have this information available
and on the web site in a timely manner to assist health professionals.
There will be quarterly updates available from the website, www.npsradar.org.au
,and you can register to receive these by email.
One of the
more frustrating parts of a community pharmacists' day is to be
confronted by consumers wanting information on the latest and
greatest break through that they saw, heard or read in the media.
With the advent of easy internet access this frustration has become
worse as consumers search fro information on their disease state
and medication.
NPS has many
programs available to assist pharmacists and consumers to acquire
good quality independent information on medication and therapeutics.
Pharmacists can access the "Therapeutic Advisory and Information
Service " (TAIS) on 1300 138677. this service will give the
pharmacist immediate access to information about new drugs, interactions
with other dugs, foods or complementary therapies, side effects
including the more unusual ones that are not in the approved product
information, safety of drugs in pregnancy and lactation and the
evidence for the use of drugs for unlicensed indications.
Another area
of interest to pharmacist is the self audits produced by NPS.
These self audits contain excellent material to reinforce the
therapeutic guidelines for the management and treatment of disease
states like osteoporosis and allergic rhinitis. Reading this material
and performing the self audit with the pharmacy's customer helps
to reinforce the practice of information gathering and analyses
of the data that all pharmacists and pharmacy assistants should
be practicing in their contact with customers. The self audits
are an excellent training tool for the pharmacists to use with
their staff and pre-registration graduates to help reinforce the
procedure for data collection and when to refer to a pharmacist.
The key counseling messages are reinforced in the material supplied
by NPS. In the past year, Queensland and Victoria have included
the self-audits as part of their pre-registration program.
NPS also produces
excellent material in the "Pharmacy Letter and the NPS News'
publications. The informative 'Australian Prescriber' is now produced
under the auspices of NPS.
Pharmacists
are often critical of the lack of independent therapeutic information
that they can access for free. The National Prescribing Service
is providing a valuable service that Pharmacists and other health
professionals are now able to access. We must move to utilize
this resource or we may lose it if the uptake of these services
does not warrant the expenditure of human and monetary resources.
A
happy and safe festive season to all
Karalyn Huxhagen
December 2003
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