Responding to the Under-Utilisation of Necessary Health Care in the Time of COVID-19: A Precision Public Health intervention.

The Veterans' Medicines Advice and Therapeutics Education Services (MATES) program is a national data driven, behaviorally informed, health intervention to improve the use of medicines among Australian veterans. The program, which has been operating since 2004, has led the way in the use of government held data assets to generate evidenced-based health information, which, when provided to clinicians alongside educational materials, can make demonstrable improvements in health and promote practice change.

Comparing time to adverse drug reaction signals in a spontaneous reporting database and a claims database: a case study of rofecoxib-induced myocardial infarction and rosiglitazone-induced heart failure signals in Australia.

Introduction: The objective of post-marketing surveillance of medicines is to rapidly detect adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Early ADR detection will enable policy makers and health professionals to recognise adverse events that may not have been identified in pre-marketing clinical trials. Multiple methods exist for ADR signal detection.

The detection of adverse events in randomized clinical trials: can we really say new medicines are safe?

Background: While it is well known that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are usually designed with sufficient sample size and power to detect the efficacy but not safety of a medicine, the extent to which RCTs quantify safety has not been well ascertained.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the safety data available for five commonly prescribed medicines at the time of marketing.

Methods: Published RCTs for five medicines risperidone, sertraline, donepezil, strontium ranelate and tramadol extended release were identified.

The validity of sequence symmetry analysis (SSA) for adverse drug reaction signal detection.

Purpose: To determine the validity of sequence symmetry analysis (SSA) method to detect adverse drug reactions from an administrative claims database.

Methods: Published randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of 19 medicines were identified through search databases, product information (PI) or the US Food and Drug Administration Web site. All adverse events (AEs) in the RCTs and the PI for the medicines were extracted.

Prevalence of preventable medication-related hospitalizations in Australia: an opportunity to reduce harm.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of potentially preventable medication-related hospitalizations amongst elderly Australian veterans by applying clinical indicators to administrative claims data.

Design And Setting: Retrospective cohort study in the Australian veteran population from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2008.

Participants: A total of 109 044 veterans with one or more hospitalizations defined by the medication-related clinical indicator set, during the 5-year study period.

Managing glaucoma in those with co-morbidity: not as easy as it seems.

Purpose: To identify the extent of use of medicines recommended to be used with caution in glaucoma patients with specified comorbidities and to determine evidence of associated harm. Retrospective cohort analysis from administrative claims data and prescription/event sequence symmetry analysis.

Participants: Australian Government Department of Veterans' Affairs treatment card holders dispensed glaucoma eye-drops.

Use of health services and medicines amongst Australian war veterans: a comparison of young elderly, near centenarians and centenarians.

Background: Age and life expectancy of residents in many developed countries, including Australia, is increasing. Health resource and medicine use in the very old is not well studied. The purpose of this study was to identify annual use of health services and medicines by very old Australian veterans; those aged 95 to 99 years (near centenarians) and those aged 100 years and over (centenarians).

Prevalence of potentially hazardous drug interactions amongst Australian veterans.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT * Up to 21% of adverse drug event related hospital admissions are due to drug interactions. Clinical significance of drug interactions varies. * Studies which only identified drug interactions of potentially major clinical significance found lower prevalence, of between 2 and 16%.

Improving heart failure outcomes with pharmacist-physician collaboration: how close are we?

Improved management of chronic disease can improve health outcomes and has the potential to reduce health service costs. Heart failure is one of the chronic diseases in which improved management involving multidisciplinary care leads to improved health outcomes. Numerous studies have shown that multidisciplinary teams involving a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, health educator and/or a social worker can improve health outcomes for heart failure patients.

Brand substitution or multiple switches per patient? An analysis of pharmaceutical brand substitution in Australia.

Purpose: To determine the number of times patients have brand and generic products substituted under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) brand substitution policy.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (RPBS) pharmacy claims data. Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) treatment card holders with at least two dispensings of atenolol, citalopram, enalapril, metformin, omeprazole or ramipril between 1 January 2001 and 28 February 2006 were included.

Pharmaceutical brand substitution in Australia--are there multiple switches per prescription?

Background: In Australia, brand substitution by pharmacists has been possible since 1994. There is no limit to the number of substitutions per prescription. Doctors have expressed concern that patients may receive a different product each time their prescription repeats are dispensed, which has the potential to confuse patients.