Developing and user testing new pharmacy label formats-A study to inform labelling standards.

Background: Dispensed prescription medicine labels (prescription labels) are important information sources supporting safe and appropriate medicines use.

Objective: To develop and user test patient-centred prescription label formats.

Methods: Five stages: developing 12 labels for four fictitious medicines of varying dosage forms; diagnostic user testing of labels (Round 1) with 40 consumers (each testing three labels); iterative label revision, and development of Round 2 labels (n = 7); user testing of labels (Round 2) with 20 consumers (each testing four labels); labelling recommendations.

Evaluation of a survey tool to measure safety climate in Australian hospital pharmacy staff.

Background: Safety climate evaluation is increasingly used by hospitals as part of quality improvement initiatives. Consequently, it is necessary to have validated tools to measure changes.

Objective: To evaluate the construct validity and internal consistency of a survey tool to measure Australian hospital pharmacy patient safety climate.

Systematic derivation of an Australian standard for Tall Man lettering to distinguish similar drug names.

Rationale, Aims And Objectives: Confusion between similar drug names can cause harmful medication errors. Similar drug names can be visually differentiated using a typographical technique known as Tall Man lettering. While international conventions exist to derive Tall Man representation for drug names, there has been no national standard developed in Australia.

An exploration of Australian hospital pharmacists' attitudes to patient safety.

Objectives: To explore the attitudes of Australian hospital pharmacists towards patient safety in their work settings.

Methods: A safety climate questionnaire was administered to all 2347 active members of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia in 2010. Part of the survey elicited free-text comments about patient safety, error and incident reporting.

Thiazolidinediones inhibit airway smooth muscle release of the chemokine CXCL10: in vitro comparison with current asthma therapies.

Background: Activated mast cells are present within airway smooth muscle (ASM) bundles in eosinophilic asthma. ASM production of the chemokine CXCL10 plays a role in their recruitment. Thus the effects of glucocorticoids (fluticasone, budesonide), long-acting β2-agonists (salmeterol, formoterol) and thiazolidinediones (ciglitazone, rosiglitazone) on CXCL10 production by ASM cells (ASMC) from people with and without asthma were investigated in vitro.

Asthmatic airway smooth muscle CXCL10 production: mitogen-activated protein kinase JNK involvement.

CXCL10 (IP10) is involved in mast cell migration to airway smooth muscle (ASM) bundles in asthma. We aimed to investigate the role of cytokine-induced MAPK activation in CXCL10 production by ASM cells from people with and without asthma. Confluent growth-arrested ASM cells were treated with inhibitors of the MAPKs ERK, p38, and JNK and transcription factor NF-κB, or vehicle, and stimulated with IL-1β, TNF-α, or IFN-γ, alone or combined (cytomix).