|
In
a major boost for the proposed new Centre in Health
Informatics (TasInformatics). The Tasmanian
Pharmacy
Informatics Research Group, headed by Professor
Greg Peterson, of the School of Pharmacy, has been
awarded several commissioned research projects worth
almost
$2.5M under
the Third
Community Pharmacy Agreement between the Commonwealth
Department of Health and Ageing and the Pharmacy Guild
of Australia.
The first project will build upon the team’s
existing research to establish a sustainable, electronic
system for the ongoing collection of information from community
pharmacies identifying incidents related to medication safety
and subsequent clinical activities by community pharmacists
around Australia. A comprehensive clinical and economic analysis
will also be performed on a large sample of the collected
data. The project will establish a national database of medication
events.
Another project is developing and evaluating
an innovative medication support program for patients being
discharged from hospital care back to the community, which
is a well-recognised high-risk period for the occurrence
of medication problems. The program will utilise information
and communications technology solutions and include an electronic
communication pathway for medication profiles between community
and hospital pharmacies, and GPs.
The team is involved in several other projects directed at improving medication
safety through the application of information and communication technology solutions.
The focus is on implementing processes, utilising information and communications
technology solutions wherever possible, that are not reliant on significant personnel
or maintenance to support.
The projects involve a unique collaboration between university
health and information system specialists (including Dr Paul
Turner from the School of Information Systems), State Departments
of Health and Economic Development, health professionals
and the local IT industry, and will result in employment
possibilities for local IT graduates. According to Professor
Peterson, these types of projects are ideally developed in
Tasmania, where there are excellent links between the various
collaborating groups, particularly through the recently established
Tasmanian e-Health Association.
The
Tasmanian School of Pharmacy website
|
