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[post_content] => From February, pack sizes of paracetamol sold in pharmacies will change. Here’s what pharmacists need to know.
Come Saturday (1 February 2025), paracetamol in packs containing 50-100 tablets or capsules will shift to Schedule 3 following the final decision on paracetamol access controls made by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in 2023.
The aim is to reduce the volume of paracetamol kept in people’s homes to prevent harm from intentional overdose. Each year, around 225 Australians are hospitalised with liver injury and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose. The highest rates of intentional overdose are among adolescents and young adults – particularly females.
Pharmacists can help to reduce the amount of surplus paracetamol available in homes by being ‘champions for the change’, said Peter Guthrey MPS, PSA Senior Pharmacist – Strategic Policy.
‘While pharmacists know paracetamol is very safe when taken at recommended doses, we also know the devastating impact of intentional or unintentional overdose.
‘On Friday, PSA will be releasing the next edition of our flagship medicine safety report series which contains concerning data on the use of medicines, including paracetamol, in children and adolescents.’
‘The data on intentional overdose involving paracetamol is alarming … Scheduling changes are not the full solution, but are a strategy which could make a positive difference if it changes the patterns of paracetamol supply.’
Other countries have gone much further than Australia in limiting access to paracetamol, through measures such as scheduling and limiting pack purchases,’ he said.
What are the changes?
The TGA’s decision includes changes to both pack sizes and packaging. The new regulations affect pain relief products containing paracetamol as the sole active ingredient and cold and flu medicines containing paracetamol in combination with other ingredients.
Access to liquid, modified release and Prescription Only paracetamol is not affected by the changes.
| Jurisdiction | Changes |
| Nationally |
|
| Western Australia and Queensland |
|
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[post_content] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
Ms Barwick founded PharmOnline, an innovative platform which connects Australian patients living in remote areas with pharmacy services. A pharmacy academic from Walcha, NSW, she previously served on PSA’s NSW Branch Committee, including holding the role of vice-president from 2014-2020.
PSA National President Associate Professor Fei Sim FPS acknowledged Ms Barwick’s enormous contribution to pharmacy profession.
‘Anna is a truly outstanding pharmacist. A pioneer of innovation, she has consistently transformed access to care in her community and beyond,’ said A/Prof Sim.
‘I have been privileged to see first-hand Anna’s work, and hope that others are as inspired and energised as I am by her contribution to the community and to the next generation of pharmacists.
‘Long recognised by the profession, having won PSA’s Pharmacy Shark Tank award in 2021 and NSW Pharmacist of the Year in 2021, I am excited to see her achievements recognised on the national stage.
‘On behalf of PSA and the pharmacy profession, I sincerely congratulate Anna on this well-deserved recognition.’
Read more about 2021 PSA Pharmacist of tee Year Anna Barwick's passion for rural and remote pharmacy here.
[post_title] => Rural healthcare advocate honoured
[post_excerpt] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
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[post_content] => Highest risk travellers need additional support – from pharmacists.
Which of the following travel is highest risk to a person’s health?
A. An adrenaline-pumping adventure holiday in Queenstown, New Zealand.
B. Buck’s weekend in Bali.
C. Staying with family members in Sri Lanka for 3 months on long service leave.
D. A week visiting the ancient temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
While each of these examples do have some risks, (C) is an example of VFR travel, which is generally considered much higher risk than travel to similar locations for primarily tourism or business purposes.
So why is this? And what is a VFR traveller?
We asked Associate Professor Holly Seale, a social scientist at the School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, what pharmacists need to know about this travel cohort and the unique risks they experience.
What is VFR travel?
VFR is a public health construct – “visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”. It categorises travellers who travel to lower-income countries for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. Often these travellers are ethnically distinct from the majority population of the country of residence.
The definition of VFR has been updated in recent years, which requires:
This differs from previous approaches to VFR travellers based on indirect factors for health risk (e.g. administrative category of migrant, country of birth, destination), factors that may not be directly relevant to determining adverse health or disease outcomes.
VFR travellers are more likely to:
They often stay with family members or friends, have less control over their diets and are more likely to drink untreated water. The health risk gradient between the source and destination may also be influenced by:
What are the main vaccine-preventable diseases of concern for VFR travel?Previous studies have described VFR travellers at being at increased risk of malaria, traveller’s diarrhoea, intestinal parasites, typhoid, paratyphoid, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in comparison to tourists and business travellers.2
Barriers include:
Additionally, VFR travel is often booked late, so the time period between booking and flying often limits the ability to fit in multi-dose vaccines. It also means there is insufficient time for recommended vaccinations or boosters to become effective.
Sometimes it’s also a system barrier. GPs who consult in a language other than English, were less likely to consider VFR travellers at higher risk compared with holiday travellers. These GPs may be VFR travellers themselves and therefore subject to the same cultural perceptions of risk as other VFR travellers.3
With a low perception of risk and inadequate pre-travel health-seeking behaviour, an opportunistic approach to provision of pre-travel health advice to VFR travellers is required.
Opportunistic conversations about travel, especially among immunisers who may share a common language, may assist with identifying future travel plans and provide more time for fitting in vaccination.
Undergoing advanced training in travel medicine, will also support understanding about vaccine recommendations, travel risks and destinations etc.
Associate Professor Holly Seale is a social scientist researching social and behavioural factors impacting engagement with infectious disease prevention strategies at the University of New South Wales.
Holly Seale is an investigator on research studies funded by the NHMRC and has previously received funding from NSW Ministry of Health, as well as from Sanofi Pasteur, Moderna and Pfizer for investigator-driven research and consulting fees.
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[post_content] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
From My Health Record to real-time prescription monitoring, electronic prescriptions and secure messaging, Australian pharmacists routinely use digital health in their daily practice. And there is more to come, as the use of machine learning and AI grows.
When implemented effectively, digital health tools facilitate communication and information sharing between healthcare professionals across various settings, including during transitions of care. For pharmacists, this timely access to clinical information helps to reduce medicine-related harm and improve the quality of care patients receive.
However, integrating new technologies is often not done particularly effectively. This was a key takeaway from a panel discussion at the National Medicines Symposium in November, where experts explored the use of digital tools to support safe medicine management.
Digital health challenges
[caption id="attachment_28530" align="alignright" width="220"]
Professor Melissa Baysari[/caption]
For digital health tools to work in practice, they must be developed with the end user in mind, said University of Sydney Professor of Health Research Melissa Baysari. It sounds obvious and should be the norm. Sadly it isn’t. This results in the common challenges faced by users, including inadequate training, difficult-to-use technology and alert fatigue, when clinicians are inundated with too many notifications.
‘[There is a] surprising lack of involvement of end users in the design and implementation of digital systems. We definitely need more of that in healthcare,’ Prof Baysari said. ‘The technology is just one part of the wider work system. The human-technology fit is the hardest part to get right.
‘I think a lot of people feel these systems are imposed on them from senior levels, but if there was more clinician involvement in the design and understanding what problems need to be solved, people would have more ownership over the technology, and accept it and use it more.’
Another challenge is the varying use of digital health tools across the country, with some areas and settings being more advanced than others. This means the Australian health system ‘is not integrated’, said SA Pharmacy Chief Pharmacy Information Officer Michael Bakker MPS.
‘We have secure messaging, allowing delivery of referrals from a community setting into hospital, or going from hospital straight to a GP or into a patient's My Health Record,’ he said. ‘Those are very valuable, but we also need to see the emergence of tools that help do the blending of the actual workflows.
[caption id="attachment_28533" align="alignright" width="237"]
Michael Bakker MPS[/caption]
‘The patient moves through the system, but you still just have this stack of paperwork. Whether we hand that to a patient as a set of papers that they can access digitally or physically, it doesn't really change that it's very difficult to navigate.’
Increasing health literacy – and digital health literacy – is essential for consumers and healthcare practitioners to interact with digital systems effectively, according to Prof Baysari.
‘I think there's a role for universities to play in ensuring that all our health professionals, as they leave, have some digital health knowledge,’ she said.
Reimagining workflows
Rather than bolting on new tools to existing systems, organisations must look at workflows holistically and identify areas for improvement, Prof Baysari said.
‘One of the challenging things is designing for current workflows to ensure that everything aligns, but also innovating and changing the way we have done things for many years because it might be safer, better or more efficient.
‘We should be designing for work as done, not work as imagined. And we should be designing for a problem, not implementing for the sake of implementation.
‘For example, I think we've overdone decision support for medication safety. We need to take a step back – what are the key problems we need to focus on when it comes to decision support and design of our systems? Let’s take a very problem focused perspective.’
Building systems to meet users’ requirements – rather than what it is assumed their requirements are – will lead to efficiencies, Mr Bakker said.
‘My hope over the next few years or decade is that we start to see tools that are built for the purposes of the people who are using them,’ he added.
Avoiding information overload
While digital health tools are often introduced with the aim of making healthcare practitioner’s lives easier, the opposite can happen, Mr Bakker said.
‘There’s some valuable evidence emerging about digital health stress, going so far as to say it contributes to burnout and people leaving the healthcare workforce altogether. We have an obligation to do something about it.
‘Not only is demand increasing, our patients are more complex, and our healthcare workforce is either not growing, can't grow, or will take too long to grow to meet that demand. We have to try and make some inroads here, appreciating that the way that we do things at the moment is actually burning people out quite a bit.’
Using digital tools to make seemingly small changes can have wide-ranging consequences, he said.
‘In South Australia alone, we have more than 4 million medication orders that are charted a year. On average, that process takes a couple of minutes for each order. If you can shrink that by 10%, you're talking about a lot of person hours that are returned back.’
In future, Prof Baysari said she hopes to see the healthcare sector get the most out of digital tools, both in terms of safety and efficiency.
‘We should be getting the benefits we expect from technology. At the moment, we’re probably achieving more in safety. I can understand there's a bit of a trade off there – if you’re going to be safe and thorough, you might need to be a little bit less efficient… But I think we're not achieving the full potential from technology. So I hope that we will.’
Watch the full panel discussion here.
[post_title] => Does technology in health care deliver on its promise?
[post_excerpt] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
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[post_content] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
“As a parent of a four and six-year-old child, I know January is typically the time when kids are getting ready for the school year,” said Jacqueline Meyer MPS, owner of LiveLife Pharmacy Cooroy and PSA Queensland Pharmacist of the Year 2023. “Let’s make sure that includes updating vaccinations.”
Ms Meyer said encouraging parents to take advantage of this window of time could help overcome practical difficulties such as a busy lifestyle, while the availability of an increasing number of vaccines at pharmacies was especially helpful in regional areas where it may be more difficult to see a GP.
Research by the National Vaccinations Insight Project found that 23.9% of parents with partially vaccinated children under the age of five did not prioritise their children's vaccination appointments over other things, while 24.8% said it was not easy to get an appointment.
As well as holidays being free of the hustle and bustle of school routine, getting immunised during the holidays means children don’t have to miss a day of school if they have mild vaccination side effects, said Samantha Kourtis, pharmacist and managing partner of Capital Chemist Charnwood in the ACT and the mother of three teenagers.
Overcoming hesitancy
Ms Meyer said it was crucial that pharmacists familiarised themselves with the laws governing vaccinations in different states and territories so they knew what part they could play in boosting immunisation.
In most states and territories pharmacists may administer vaccines to children over the age of five – in Queensland that age is two years and, in Tasmania, in some cases, 10 years.
This can be most helpful for children who have missed out on immunisations through school programs, or from a medical clinic.
Concerningly, however, new research shows vaccination coverage among children in Australia has declined for the third consecutive year.
In 2020, fully vaccinated coverage rates were 94.8% at 12 months, 92.1 at 24 months and 94.8% at five years of age. In 2023 those rates were 92.8, 90.8% and 93.3% respectively.
Between 2020 and 2023, the proportion of children vaccinated within 30 days of the recommended age also decreased for both the second dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine (from 90.1% to 83.5% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 80.3% to 74.6% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) and the first dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine (from 75.3% to 67.2% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children children and 64.7% to 56% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children).
While access issues played some part in the decline, vaccine acceptance or parents’ thoughts and feelings about vaccines and parents’ social influences have also been a factor, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
Researchers found 60.2% of parents felt distressed when thinking about vaccinating their children.
Pharmacist Sonia Zhu MPS, of Ramsay Pharmacy Glen Huntly, who has a four year old child, said she often has conversations with parents who feel anxious about vaccination.
“Whenever a parent is concerned, I ask them what is making them feel worried and then I am able to talk to them about the risks of the disease as opposed to the vaccine,” she said.
“I can assure them that vaccinations are just like a practice exam for your immune system and that, if their child gets the disease, they will recover better and more quickly if they are vaccinated.”
Mrs Kourtis said it was also important to reduce vaccination anxiety among children with a friendly healthcare environment, especially for younger children.
“We have regular colouring competitions, fairy doors, fun stickers and a donut stool they sit on to have their vaccination,” she said.
“We also talk to parents about what their child needs before being vaccinated. That may be to wear headphones, for example, or other measures for children who are neurodiverse.”
While Ms Zhu said lollipops were offered to children and teens, Ms Meyer said cartoon images, stuffed toys and devices that acted as distraction tools were other accessories used in pharmacies to help create a calm environment.
The teenage challenge
Vaccine rates in adolescents have also declined. Between 2022 and 2023, coverage decreased for having at least one dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by 15 years of age (from 85.3% to 84.2% for girls and 83.1% to 81.8% for boys); an adolescent dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine by 15 years of age (from 86.9% overall to 85.5%) and one dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine by 17 years of age (from 75.9% overall to 72.8%).
“We certainly have nowhere near the uptake of meningococcal B vaccine we would like in Queensland,” said Ms Meyer.
According to the Primary Health Network Brisbane South, in the 15 to 20-year-old cohort, just under 14% have been immunised, leaving approximately 386,000 eligible adolescents unvaccinated.
The Queensland MenB Vaccination Program announced this year provides free vaccines to eligible infants, children and adolescents, and is the largest state-funded immunisation program ever implemented in the state.
With pharmacists able to administer all of these vaccinations between year 7 and year 10, Ms Meyer sees a clear opportunity to communicate the benefits of vaccination to parents.
“I think pharmacists could reach out to local schools and offer to conduct educational sessions,” said Ms Meyer. “Community pharmacies often employ teenagers for casual or junior shifts so it may start with simply talking to existing staff that may fit the eligibility criteria for demographic.”
Mrs Kourtis said community pharmacists were well placed to have health promotions in store and on social media.
“They can also try to partner with local community and sporting organisations to promote vaccination through them,” she said.
[post_title] => Boosting childhood vaccination rates in the holidays
[post_excerpt] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
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[post_content] => From February, pack sizes of paracetamol sold in pharmacies will change. Here’s what pharmacists need to know.
Come Saturday (1 February 2025), paracetamol in packs containing 50-100 tablets or capsules will shift to Schedule 3 following the final decision on paracetamol access controls made by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in 2023.
The aim is to reduce the volume of paracetamol kept in people’s homes to prevent harm from intentional overdose. Each year, around 225 Australians are hospitalised with liver injury and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose. The highest rates of intentional overdose are among adolescents and young adults – particularly females.
Pharmacists can help to reduce the amount of surplus paracetamol available in homes by being ‘champions for the change’, said Peter Guthrey MPS, PSA Senior Pharmacist – Strategic Policy.
‘While pharmacists know paracetamol is very safe when taken at recommended doses, we also know the devastating impact of intentional or unintentional overdose.
‘On Friday, PSA will be releasing the next edition of our flagship medicine safety report series which contains concerning data on the use of medicines, including paracetamol, in children and adolescents.’
‘The data on intentional overdose involving paracetamol is alarming … Scheduling changes are not the full solution, but are a strategy which could make a positive difference if it changes the patterns of paracetamol supply.’
Other countries have gone much further than Australia in limiting access to paracetamol, through measures such as scheduling and limiting pack purchases,’ he said.
What are the changes?
The TGA’s decision includes changes to both pack sizes and packaging. The new regulations affect pain relief products containing paracetamol as the sole active ingredient and cold and flu medicines containing paracetamol in combination with other ingredients.
Access to liquid, modified release and Prescription Only paracetamol is not affected by the changes.
| Jurisdiction | Changes |
| Nationally |
|
| Western Australia and Queensland |
|
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[post_content] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
Ms Barwick founded PharmOnline, an innovative platform which connects Australian patients living in remote areas with pharmacy services. A pharmacy academic from Walcha, NSW, she previously served on PSA’s NSW Branch Committee, including holding the role of vice-president from 2014-2020.
PSA National President Associate Professor Fei Sim FPS acknowledged Ms Barwick’s enormous contribution to pharmacy profession.
‘Anna is a truly outstanding pharmacist. A pioneer of innovation, she has consistently transformed access to care in her community and beyond,’ said A/Prof Sim.
‘I have been privileged to see first-hand Anna’s work, and hope that others are as inspired and energised as I am by her contribution to the community and to the next generation of pharmacists.
‘Long recognised by the profession, having won PSA’s Pharmacy Shark Tank award in 2021 and NSW Pharmacist of the Year in 2021, I am excited to see her achievements recognised on the national stage.
‘On behalf of PSA and the pharmacy profession, I sincerely congratulate Anna on this well-deserved recognition.’
Read more about 2021 PSA Pharmacist of tee Year Anna Barwick's passion for rural and remote pharmacy here.
[post_title] => Rural healthcare advocate honoured
[post_excerpt] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
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[post_content] => Highest risk travellers need additional support – from pharmacists.
Which of the following travel is highest risk to a person’s health?
A. An adrenaline-pumping adventure holiday in Queenstown, New Zealand.
B. Buck’s weekend in Bali.
C. Staying with family members in Sri Lanka for 3 months on long service leave.
D. A week visiting the ancient temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
While each of these examples do have some risks, (C) is an example of VFR travel, which is generally considered much higher risk than travel to similar locations for primarily tourism or business purposes.
So why is this? And what is a VFR traveller?
We asked Associate Professor Holly Seale, a social scientist at the School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, what pharmacists need to know about this travel cohort and the unique risks they experience.
What is VFR travel?
VFR is a public health construct – “visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”. It categorises travellers who travel to lower-income countries for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. Often these travellers are ethnically distinct from the majority population of the country of residence.
The definition of VFR has been updated in recent years, which requires:
This differs from previous approaches to VFR travellers based on indirect factors for health risk (e.g. administrative category of migrant, country of birth, destination), factors that may not be directly relevant to determining adverse health or disease outcomes.
VFR travellers are more likely to:
They often stay with family members or friends, have less control over their diets and are more likely to drink untreated water. The health risk gradient between the source and destination may also be influenced by:
What are the main vaccine-preventable diseases of concern for VFR travel?Previous studies have described VFR travellers at being at increased risk of malaria, traveller’s diarrhoea, intestinal parasites, typhoid, paratyphoid, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in comparison to tourists and business travellers.2
Barriers include:
Additionally, VFR travel is often booked late, so the time period between booking and flying often limits the ability to fit in multi-dose vaccines. It also means there is insufficient time for recommended vaccinations or boosters to become effective.
Sometimes it’s also a system barrier. GPs who consult in a language other than English, were less likely to consider VFR travellers at higher risk compared with holiday travellers. These GPs may be VFR travellers themselves and therefore subject to the same cultural perceptions of risk as other VFR travellers.3
With a low perception of risk and inadequate pre-travel health-seeking behaviour, an opportunistic approach to provision of pre-travel health advice to VFR travellers is required.
Opportunistic conversations about travel, especially among immunisers who may share a common language, may assist with identifying future travel plans and provide more time for fitting in vaccination.
Undergoing advanced training in travel medicine, will also support understanding about vaccine recommendations, travel risks and destinations etc.
Associate Professor Holly Seale is a social scientist researching social and behavioural factors impacting engagement with infectious disease prevention strategies at the University of New South Wales.
Holly Seale is an investigator on research studies funded by the NHMRC and has previously received funding from NSW Ministry of Health, as well as from Sanofi Pasteur, Moderna and Pfizer for investigator-driven research and consulting fees.
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[post_content] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
From My Health Record to real-time prescription monitoring, electronic prescriptions and secure messaging, Australian pharmacists routinely use digital health in their daily practice. And there is more to come, as the use of machine learning and AI grows.
When implemented effectively, digital health tools facilitate communication and information sharing between healthcare professionals across various settings, including during transitions of care. For pharmacists, this timely access to clinical information helps to reduce medicine-related harm and improve the quality of care patients receive.
However, integrating new technologies is often not done particularly effectively. This was a key takeaway from a panel discussion at the National Medicines Symposium in November, where experts explored the use of digital tools to support safe medicine management.
Digital health challenges
[caption id="attachment_28530" align="alignright" width="220"] Professor Melissa Baysari[/caption]
For digital health tools to work in practice, they must be developed with the end user in mind, said University of Sydney Professor of Health Research Melissa Baysari. It sounds obvious and should be the norm. Sadly it isn’t. This results in the common challenges faced by users, including inadequate training, difficult-to-use technology and alert fatigue, when clinicians are inundated with too many notifications.
‘[There is a] surprising lack of involvement of end users in the design and implementation of digital systems. We definitely need more of that in healthcare,’ Prof Baysari said. ‘The technology is just one part of the wider work system. The human-technology fit is the hardest part to get right.
‘I think a lot of people feel these systems are imposed on them from senior levels, but if there was more clinician involvement in the design and understanding what problems need to be solved, people would have more ownership over the technology, and accept it and use it more.’
Another challenge is the varying use of digital health tools across the country, with some areas and settings being more advanced than others. This means the Australian health system ‘is not integrated’, said SA Pharmacy Chief Pharmacy Information Officer Michael Bakker MPS.
‘We have secure messaging, allowing delivery of referrals from a community setting into hospital, or going from hospital straight to a GP or into a patient's My Health Record,’ he said. ‘Those are very valuable, but we also need to see the emergence of tools that help do the blending of the actual workflows.
[caption id="attachment_28533" align="alignright" width="237"] Michael Bakker MPS[/caption]
‘The patient moves through the system, but you still just have this stack of paperwork. Whether we hand that to a patient as a set of papers that they can access digitally or physically, it doesn't really change that it's very difficult to navigate.’
Increasing health literacy – and digital health literacy – is essential for consumers and healthcare practitioners to interact with digital systems effectively, according to Prof Baysari.
‘I think there's a role for universities to play in ensuring that all our health professionals, as they leave, have some digital health knowledge,’ she said.
Reimagining workflows
Rather than bolting on new tools to existing systems, organisations must look at workflows holistically and identify areas for improvement, Prof Baysari said.
‘One of the challenging things is designing for current workflows to ensure that everything aligns, but also innovating and changing the way we have done things for many years because it might be safer, better or more efficient.
‘We should be designing for work as done, not work as imagined. And we should be designing for a problem, not implementing for the sake of implementation.
‘For example, I think we've overdone decision support for medication safety. We need to take a step back – what are the key problems we need to focus on when it comes to decision support and design of our systems? Let’s take a very problem focused perspective.’
Building systems to meet users’ requirements – rather than what it is assumed their requirements are – will lead to efficiencies, Mr Bakker said.
‘My hope over the next few years or decade is that we start to see tools that are built for the purposes of the people who are using them,’ he added.
Avoiding information overload
While digital health tools are often introduced with the aim of making healthcare practitioner’s lives easier, the opposite can happen, Mr Bakker said.
‘There’s some valuable evidence emerging about digital health stress, going so far as to say it contributes to burnout and people leaving the healthcare workforce altogether. We have an obligation to do something about it.
‘Not only is demand increasing, our patients are more complex, and our healthcare workforce is either not growing, can't grow, or will take too long to grow to meet that demand. We have to try and make some inroads here, appreciating that the way that we do things at the moment is actually burning people out quite a bit.’
Using digital tools to make seemingly small changes can have wide-ranging consequences, he said.
‘In South Australia alone, we have more than 4 million medication orders that are charted a year. On average, that process takes a couple of minutes for each order. If you can shrink that by 10%, you're talking about a lot of person hours that are returned back.’
In future, Prof Baysari said she hopes to see the healthcare sector get the most out of digital tools, both in terms of safety and efficiency.
‘We should be getting the benefits we expect from technology. At the moment, we’re probably achieving more in safety. I can understand there's a bit of a trade off there – if you’re going to be safe and thorough, you might need to be a little bit less efficient… But I think we're not achieving the full potential from technology. So I hope that we will.’
Watch the full panel discussion here.
[post_title] => Does technology in health care deliver on its promise?
[post_excerpt] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
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[post_content] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
“As a parent of a four and six-year-old child, I know January is typically the time when kids are getting ready for the school year,” said Jacqueline Meyer MPS, owner of LiveLife Pharmacy Cooroy and PSA Queensland Pharmacist of the Year 2023. “Let’s make sure that includes updating vaccinations.”
Ms Meyer said encouraging parents to take advantage of this window of time could help overcome practical difficulties such as a busy lifestyle, while the availability of an increasing number of vaccines at pharmacies was especially helpful in regional areas where it may be more difficult to see a GP.
Research by the National Vaccinations Insight Project found that 23.9% of parents with partially vaccinated children under the age of five did not prioritise their children's vaccination appointments over other things, while 24.8% said it was not easy to get an appointment.
As well as holidays being free of the hustle and bustle of school routine, getting immunised during the holidays means children don’t have to miss a day of school if they have mild vaccination side effects, said Samantha Kourtis, pharmacist and managing partner of Capital Chemist Charnwood in the ACT and the mother of three teenagers.
Overcoming hesitancy
Ms Meyer said it was crucial that pharmacists familiarised themselves with the laws governing vaccinations in different states and territories so they knew what part they could play in boosting immunisation.
In most states and territories pharmacists may administer vaccines to children over the age of five – in Queensland that age is two years and, in Tasmania, in some cases, 10 years.
This can be most helpful for children who have missed out on immunisations through school programs, or from a medical clinic.
Concerningly, however, new research shows vaccination coverage among children in Australia has declined for the third consecutive year.
In 2020, fully vaccinated coverage rates were 94.8% at 12 months, 92.1 at 24 months and 94.8% at five years of age. In 2023 those rates were 92.8, 90.8% and 93.3% respectively.
Between 2020 and 2023, the proportion of children vaccinated within 30 days of the recommended age also decreased for both the second dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine (from 90.1% to 83.5% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 80.3% to 74.6% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) and the first dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine (from 75.3% to 67.2% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children children and 64.7% to 56% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children).
While access issues played some part in the decline, vaccine acceptance or parents’ thoughts and feelings about vaccines and parents’ social influences have also been a factor, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
Researchers found 60.2% of parents felt distressed when thinking about vaccinating their children.
Pharmacist Sonia Zhu MPS, of Ramsay Pharmacy Glen Huntly, who has a four year old child, said she often has conversations with parents who feel anxious about vaccination.
“Whenever a parent is concerned, I ask them what is making them feel worried and then I am able to talk to them about the risks of the disease as opposed to the vaccine,” she said.
“I can assure them that vaccinations are just like a practice exam for your immune system and that, if their child gets the disease, they will recover better and more quickly if they are vaccinated.”
Mrs Kourtis said it was also important to reduce vaccination anxiety among children with a friendly healthcare environment, especially for younger children.
“We have regular colouring competitions, fairy doors, fun stickers and a donut stool they sit on to have their vaccination,” she said.
“We also talk to parents about what their child needs before being vaccinated. That may be to wear headphones, for example, or other measures for children who are neurodiverse.”
While Ms Zhu said lollipops were offered to children and teens, Ms Meyer said cartoon images, stuffed toys and devices that acted as distraction tools were other accessories used in pharmacies to help create a calm environment.
The teenage challenge
Vaccine rates in adolescents have also declined. Between 2022 and 2023, coverage decreased for having at least one dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by 15 years of age (from 85.3% to 84.2% for girls and 83.1% to 81.8% for boys); an adolescent dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine by 15 years of age (from 86.9% overall to 85.5%) and one dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine by 17 years of age (from 75.9% overall to 72.8%).
“We certainly have nowhere near the uptake of meningococcal B vaccine we would like in Queensland,” said Ms Meyer.
According to the Primary Health Network Brisbane South, in the 15 to 20-year-old cohort, just under 14% have been immunised, leaving approximately 386,000 eligible adolescents unvaccinated.
The Queensland MenB Vaccination Program announced this year provides free vaccines to eligible infants, children and adolescents, and is the largest state-funded immunisation program ever implemented in the state.
With pharmacists able to administer all of these vaccinations between year 7 and year 10, Ms Meyer sees a clear opportunity to communicate the benefits of vaccination to parents.
“I think pharmacists could reach out to local schools and offer to conduct educational sessions,” said Ms Meyer. “Community pharmacies often employ teenagers for casual or junior shifts so it may start with simply talking to existing staff that may fit the eligibility criteria for demographic.”
Mrs Kourtis said community pharmacists were well placed to have health promotions in store and on social media.
“They can also try to partner with local community and sporting organisations to promote vaccination through them,” she said.
[post_title] => Boosting childhood vaccination rates in the holidays
[post_excerpt] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
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[post_content] => From February, pack sizes of paracetamol sold in pharmacies will change. Here’s what pharmacists need to know.
Come Saturday (1 February 2025), paracetamol in packs containing 50-100 tablets or capsules will shift to Schedule 3 following the final decision on paracetamol access controls made by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in 2023.
The aim is to reduce the volume of paracetamol kept in people’s homes to prevent harm from intentional overdose. Each year, around 225 Australians are hospitalised with liver injury and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose. The highest rates of intentional overdose are among adolescents and young adults – particularly females.
Pharmacists can help to reduce the amount of surplus paracetamol available in homes by being ‘champions for the change’, said Peter Guthrey MPS, PSA Senior Pharmacist – Strategic Policy.
‘While pharmacists know paracetamol is very safe when taken at recommended doses, we also know the devastating impact of intentional or unintentional overdose.
‘On Friday, PSA will be releasing the next edition of our flagship medicine safety report series which contains concerning data on the use of medicines, including paracetamol, in children and adolescents.’
‘The data on intentional overdose involving paracetamol is alarming … Scheduling changes are not the full solution, but are a strategy which could make a positive difference if it changes the patterns of paracetamol supply.’
Other countries have gone much further than Australia in limiting access to paracetamol, through measures such as scheduling and limiting pack purchases,’ he said.
What are the changes?
The TGA’s decision includes changes to both pack sizes and packaging. The new regulations affect pain relief products containing paracetamol as the sole active ingredient and cold and flu medicines containing paracetamol in combination with other ingredients.
Access to liquid, modified release and Prescription Only paracetamol is not affected by the changes.
| Jurisdiction | Changes |
| Nationally |
|
| Western Australia and Queensland |
|
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[post_content] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
Ms Barwick founded PharmOnline, an innovative platform which connects Australian patients living in remote areas with pharmacy services. A pharmacy academic from Walcha, NSW, she previously served on PSA’s NSW Branch Committee, including holding the role of vice-president from 2014-2020.
PSA National President Associate Professor Fei Sim FPS acknowledged Ms Barwick’s enormous contribution to pharmacy profession.
‘Anna is a truly outstanding pharmacist. A pioneer of innovation, she has consistently transformed access to care in her community and beyond,’ said A/Prof Sim.
‘I have been privileged to see first-hand Anna’s work, and hope that others are as inspired and energised as I am by her contribution to the community and to the next generation of pharmacists.
‘Long recognised by the profession, having won PSA’s Pharmacy Shark Tank award in 2021 and NSW Pharmacist of the Year in 2021, I am excited to see her achievements recognised on the national stage.
‘On behalf of PSA and the pharmacy profession, I sincerely congratulate Anna on this well-deserved recognition.’
Read more about 2021 PSA Pharmacist of tee Year Anna Barwick's passion for rural and remote pharmacy here.
[post_title] => Rural healthcare advocate honoured
[post_excerpt] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
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[post_content] => Highest risk travellers need additional support – from pharmacists.
Which of the following travel is highest risk to a person’s health?
A. An adrenaline-pumping adventure holiday in Queenstown, New Zealand.
B. Buck’s weekend in Bali.
C. Staying with family members in Sri Lanka for 3 months on long service leave.
D. A week visiting the ancient temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
While each of these examples do have some risks, (C) is an example of VFR travel, which is generally considered much higher risk than travel to similar locations for primarily tourism or business purposes.
So why is this? And what is a VFR traveller?
We asked Associate Professor Holly Seale, a social scientist at the School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, what pharmacists need to know about this travel cohort and the unique risks they experience.
What is VFR travel?
VFR is a public health construct – “visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”. It categorises travellers who travel to lower-income countries for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. Often these travellers are ethnically distinct from the majority population of the country of residence.
The definition of VFR has been updated in recent years, which requires:
This differs from previous approaches to VFR travellers based on indirect factors for health risk (e.g. administrative category of migrant, country of birth, destination), factors that may not be directly relevant to determining adverse health or disease outcomes.
VFR travellers are more likely to:
They often stay with family members or friends, have less control over their diets and are more likely to drink untreated water. The health risk gradient between the source and destination may also be influenced by:
What are the main vaccine-preventable diseases of concern for VFR travel?Previous studies have described VFR travellers at being at increased risk of malaria, traveller’s diarrhoea, intestinal parasites, typhoid, paratyphoid, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in comparison to tourists and business travellers.2
Barriers include:
Additionally, VFR travel is often booked late, so the time period between booking and flying often limits the ability to fit in multi-dose vaccines. It also means there is insufficient time for recommended vaccinations or boosters to become effective.
Sometimes it’s also a system barrier. GPs who consult in a language other than English, were less likely to consider VFR travellers at higher risk compared with holiday travellers. These GPs may be VFR travellers themselves and therefore subject to the same cultural perceptions of risk as other VFR travellers.3
With a low perception of risk and inadequate pre-travel health-seeking behaviour, an opportunistic approach to provision of pre-travel health advice to VFR travellers is required.
Opportunistic conversations about travel, especially among immunisers who may share a common language, may assist with identifying future travel plans and provide more time for fitting in vaccination.
Undergoing advanced training in travel medicine, will also support understanding about vaccine recommendations, travel risks and destinations etc.
Associate Professor Holly Seale is a social scientist researching social and behavioural factors impacting engagement with infectious disease prevention strategies at the University of New South Wales.
Holly Seale is an investigator on research studies funded by the NHMRC and has previously received funding from NSW Ministry of Health, as well as from Sanofi Pasteur, Moderna and Pfizer for investigator-driven research and consulting fees.
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[post_content] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
From My Health Record to real-time prescription monitoring, electronic prescriptions and secure messaging, Australian pharmacists routinely use digital health in their daily practice. And there is more to come, as the use of machine learning and AI grows.
When implemented effectively, digital health tools facilitate communication and information sharing between healthcare professionals across various settings, including during transitions of care. For pharmacists, this timely access to clinical information helps to reduce medicine-related harm and improve the quality of care patients receive.
However, integrating new technologies is often not done particularly effectively. This was a key takeaway from a panel discussion at the National Medicines Symposium in November, where experts explored the use of digital tools to support safe medicine management.
Digital health challenges
[caption id="attachment_28530" align="alignright" width="220"] Professor Melissa Baysari[/caption]
For digital health tools to work in practice, they must be developed with the end user in mind, said University of Sydney Professor of Health Research Melissa Baysari. It sounds obvious and should be the norm. Sadly it isn’t. This results in the common challenges faced by users, including inadequate training, difficult-to-use technology and alert fatigue, when clinicians are inundated with too many notifications.
‘[There is a] surprising lack of involvement of end users in the design and implementation of digital systems. We definitely need more of that in healthcare,’ Prof Baysari said. ‘The technology is just one part of the wider work system. The human-technology fit is the hardest part to get right.
‘I think a lot of people feel these systems are imposed on them from senior levels, but if there was more clinician involvement in the design and understanding what problems need to be solved, people would have more ownership over the technology, and accept it and use it more.’
Another challenge is the varying use of digital health tools across the country, with some areas and settings being more advanced than others. This means the Australian health system ‘is not integrated’, said SA Pharmacy Chief Pharmacy Information Officer Michael Bakker MPS.
‘We have secure messaging, allowing delivery of referrals from a community setting into hospital, or going from hospital straight to a GP or into a patient's My Health Record,’ he said. ‘Those are very valuable, but we also need to see the emergence of tools that help do the blending of the actual workflows.
[caption id="attachment_28533" align="alignright" width="237"] Michael Bakker MPS[/caption]
‘The patient moves through the system, but you still just have this stack of paperwork. Whether we hand that to a patient as a set of papers that they can access digitally or physically, it doesn't really change that it's very difficult to navigate.’
Increasing health literacy – and digital health literacy – is essential for consumers and healthcare practitioners to interact with digital systems effectively, according to Prof Baysari.
‘I think there's a role for universities to play in ensuring that all our health professionals, as they leave, have some digital health knowledge,’ she said.
Reimagining workflows
Rather than bolting on new tools to existing systems, organisations must look at workflows holistically and identify areas for improvement, Prof Baysari said.
‘One of the challenging things is designing for current workflows to ensure that everything aligns, but also innovating and changing the way we have done things for many years because it might be safer, better or more efficient.
‘We should be designing for work as done, not work as imagined. And we should be designing for a problem, not implementing for the sake of implementation.
‘For example, I think we've overdone decision support for medication safety. We need to take a step back – what are the key problems we need to focus on when it comes to decision support and design of our systems? Let’s take a very problem focused perspective.’
Building systems to meet users’ requirements – rather than what it is assumed their requirements are – will lead to efficiencies, Mr Bakker said.
‘My hope over the next few years or decade is that we start to see tools that are built for the purposes of the people who are using them,’ he added.
Avoiding information overload
While digital health tools are often introduced with the aim of making healthcare practitioner’s lives easier, the opposite can happen, Mr Bakker said.
‘There’s some valuable evidence emerging about digital health stress, going so far as to say it contributes to burnout and people leaving the healthcare workforce altogether. We have an obligation to do something about it.
‘Not only is demand increasing, our patients are more complex, and our healthcare workforce is either not growing, can't grow, or will take too long to grow to meet that demand. We have to try and make some inroads here, appreciating that the way that we do things at the moment is actually burning people out quite a bit.’
Using digital tools to make seemingly small changes can have wide-ranging consequences, he said.
‘In South Australia alone, we have more than 4 million medication orders that are charted a year. On average, that process takes a couple of minutes for each order. If you can shrink that by 10%, you're talking about a lot of person hours that are returned back.’
In future, Prof Baysari said she hopes to see the healthcare sector get the most out of digital tools, both in terms of safety and efficiency.
‘We should be getting the benefits we expect from technology. At the moment, we’re probably achieving more in safety. I can understand there's a bit of a trade off there – if you’re going to be safe and thorough, you might need to be a little bit less efficient… But I think we're not achieving the full potential from technology. So I hope that we will.’
Watch the full panel discussion here.
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[post_content] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
“As a parent of a four and six-year-old child, I know January is typically the time when kids are getting ready for the school year,” said Jacqueline Meyer MPS, owner of LiveLife Pharmacy Cooroy and PSA Queensland Pharmacist of the Year 2023. “Let’s make sure that includes updating vaccinations.”
Ms Meyer said encouraging parents to take advantage of this window of time could help overcome practical difficulties such as a busy lifestyle, while the availability of an increasing number of vaccines at pharmacies was especially helpful in regional areas where it may be more difficult to see a GP.
Research by the National Vaccinations Insight Project found that 23.9% of parents with partially vaccinated children under the age of five did not prioritise their children's vaccination appointments over other things, while 24.8% said it was not easy to get an appointment.
As well as holidays being free of the hustle and bustle of school routine, getting immunised during the holidays means children don’t have to miss a day of school if they have mild vaccination side effects, said Samantha Kourtis, pharmacist and managing partner of Capital Chemist Charnwood in the ACT and the mother of three teenagers.
Overcoming hesitancy
Ms Meyer said it was crucial that pharmacists familiarised themselves with the laws governing vaccinations in different states and territories so they knew what part they could play in boosting immunisation.
In most states and territories pharmacists may administer vaccines to children over the age of five – in Queensland that age is two years and, in Tasmania, in some cases, 10 years.
This can be most helpful for children who have missed out on immunisations through school programs, or from a medical clinic.
Concerningly, however, new research shows vaccination coverage among children in Australia has declined for the third consecutive year.
In 2020, fully vaccinated coverage rates were 94.8% at 12 months, 92.1 at 24 months and 94.8% at five years of age. In 2023 those rates were 92.8, 90.8% and 93.3% respectively.
Between 2020 and 2023, the proportion of children vaccinated within 30 days of the recommended age also decreased for both the second dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine (from 90.1% to 83.5% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 80.3% to 74.6% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) and the first dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine (from 75.3% to 67.2% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children children and 64.7% to 56% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children).
While access issues played some part in the decline, vaccine acceptance or parents’ thoughts and feelings about vaccines and parents’ social influences have also been a factor, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
Researchers found 60.2% of parents felt distressed when thinking about vaccinating their children.
Pharmacist Sonia Zhu MPS, of Ramsay Pharmacy Glen Huntly, who has a four year old child, said she often has conversations with parents who feel anxious about vaccination.
“Whenever a parent is concerned, I ask them what is making them feel worried and then I am able to talk to them about the risks of the disease as opposed to the vaccine,” she said.
“I can assure them that vaccinations are just like a practice exam for your immune system and that, if their child gets the disease, they will recover better and more quickly if they are vaccinated.”
Mrs Kourtis said it was also important to reduce vaccination anxiety among children with a friendly healthcare environment, especially for younger children.
“We have regular colouring competitions, fairy doors, fun stickers and a donut stool they sit on to have their vaccination,” she said.
“We also talk to parents about what their child needs before being vaccinated. That may be to wear headphones, for example, or other measures for children who are neurodiverse.”
While Ms Zhu said lollipops were offered to children and teens, Ms Meyer said cartoon images, stuffed toys and devices that acted as distraction tools were other accessories used in pharmacies to help create a calm environment.
The teenage challenge
Vaccine rates in adolescents have also declined. Between 2022 and 2023, coverage decreased for having at least one dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by 15 years of age (from 85.3% to 84.2% for girls and 83.1% to 81.8% for boys); an adolescent dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine by 15 years of age (from 86.9% overall to 85.5%) and one dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine by 17 years of age (from 75.9% overall to 72.8%).
“We certainly have nowhere near the uptake of meningococcal B vaccine we would like in Queensland,” said Ms Meyer.
According to the Primary Health Network Brisbane South, in the 15 to 20-year-old cohort, just under 14% have been immunised, leaving approximately 386,000 eligible adolescents unvaccinated.
The Queensland MenB Vaccination Program announced this year provides free vaccines to eligible infants, children and adolescents, and is the largest state-funded immunisation program ever implemented in the state.
With pharmacists able to administer all of these vaccinations between year 7 and year 10, Ms Meyer sees a clear opportunity to communicate the benefits of vaccination to parents.
“I think pharmacists could reach out to local schools and offer to conduct educational sessions,” said Ms Meyer. “Community pharmacies often employ teenagers for casual or junior shifts so it may start with simply talking to existing staff that may fit the eligibility criteria for demographic.”
Mrs Kourtis said community pharmacists were well placed to have health promotions in store and on social media.
“They can also try to partner with local community and sporting organisations to promote vaccination through them,” she said.
[post_title] => Boosting childhood vaccination rates in the holidays
[post_excerpt] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
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[post_content] => From February, pack sizes of paracetamol sold in pharmacies will change. Here’s what pharmacists need to know.
Come Saturday (1 February 2025), paracetamol in packs containing 50-100 tablets or capsules will shift to Schedule 3 following the final decision on paracetamol access controls made by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in 2023.
The aim is to reduce the volume of paracetamol kept in people’s homes to prevent harm from intentional overdose. Each year, around 225 Australians are hospitalised with liver injury and 50 Australians die from paracetamol overdose. The highest rates of intentional overdose are among adolescents and young adults – particularly females.
Pharmacists can help to reduce the amount of surplus paracetamol available in homes by being ‘champions for the change’, said Peter Guthrey MPS, PSA Senior Pharmacist – Strategic Policy.
‘While pharmacists know paracetamol is very safe when taken at recommended doses, we also know the devastating impact of intentional or unintentional overdose.
‘On Friday, PSA will be releasing the next edition of our flagship medicine safety report series which contains concerning data on the use of medicines, including paracetamol, in children and adolescents.’
‘The data on intentional overdose involving paracetamol is alarming … Scheduling changes are not the full solution, but are a strategy which could make a positive difference if it changes the patterns of paracetamol supply.’
Other countries have gone much further than Australia in limiting access to paracetamol, through measures such as scheduling and limiting pack purchases,’ he said.
What are the changes?
The TGA’s decision includes changes to both pack sizes and packaging. The new regulations affect pain relief products containing paracetamol as the sole active ingredient and cold and flu medicines containing paracetamol in combination with other ingredients.
Access to liquid, modified release and Prescription Only paracetamol is not affected by the changes.
| Jurisdiction | Changes |
| Nationally |
|
| Western Australia and Queensland |
|
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[post_content] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
Ms Barwick founded PharmOnline, an innovative platform which connects Australian patients living in remote areas with pharmacy services. A pharmacy academic from Walcha, NSW, she previously served on PSA’s NSW Branch Committee, including holding the role of vice-president from 2014-2020.
PSA National President Associate Professor Fei Sim FPS acknowledged Ms Barwick’s enormous contribution to pharmacy profession.
‘Anna is a truly outstanding pharmacist. A pioneer of innovation, she has consistently transformed access to care in her community and beyond,’ said A/Prof Sim.
‘I have been privileged to see first-hand Anna’s work, and hope that others are as inspired and energised as I am by her contribution to the community and to the next generation of pharmacists.
‘Long recognised by the profession, having won PSA’s Pharmacy Shark Tank award in 2021 and NSW Pharmacist of the Year in 2021, I am excited to see her achievements recognised on the national stage.
‘On behalf of PSA and the pharmacy profession, I sincerely congratulate Anna on this well-deserved recognition.’
Read more about 2021 PSA Pharmacist of tee Year Anna Barwick's passion for rural and remote pharmacy here.
[post_title] => Rural healthcare advocate honoured
[post_excerpt] => NSW pharmacist Anna Barwick MPS was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2025 Australia Day Honours.
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[post_content] => Highest risk travellers need additional support – from pharmacists.
Which of the following travel is highest risk to a person’s health?
A. An adrenaline-pumping adventure holiday in Queenstown, New Zealand.
B. Buck’s weekend in Bali.
C. Staying with family members in Sri Lanka for 3 months on long service leave.
D. A week visiting the ancient temples in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
While each of these examples do have some risks, (C) is an example of VFR travel, which is generally considered much higher risk than travel to similar locations for primarily tourism or business purposes.
So why is this? And what is a VFR traveller?
We asked Associate Professor Holly Seale, a social scientist at the School of Population Health, University of New South Wales, what pharmacists need to know about this travel cohort and the unique risks they experience.
What is VFR travel?
VFR is a public health construct – “visiting friends and relatives (VFR)”. It categorises travellers who travel to lower-income countries for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives. Often these travellers are ethnically distinct from the majority population of the country of residence.
The definition of VFR has been updated in recent years, which requires:
This differs from previous approaches to VFR travellers based on indirect factors for health risk (e.g. administrative category of migrant, country of birth, destination), factors that may not be directly relevant to determining adverse health or disease outcomes.
VFR travellers are more likely to:
They often stay with family members or friends, have less control over their diets and are more likely to drink untreated water. The health risk gradient between the source and destination may also be influenced by:
What are the main vaccine-preventable diseases of concern for VFR travel?Previous studies have described VFR travellers at being at increased risk of malaria, traveller’s diarrhoea, intestinal parasites, typhoid, paratyphoid, viral hepatitis, and tuberculosis in comparison to tourists and business travellers.2
Barriers include:
Additionally, VFR travel is often booked late, so the time period between booking and flying often limits the ability to fit in multi-dose vaccines. It also means there is insufficient time for recommended vaccinations or boosters to become effective.
Sometimes it’s also a system barrier. GPs who consult in a language other than English, were less likely to consider VFR travellers at higher risk compared with holiday travellers. These GPs may be VFR travellers themselves and therefore subject to the same cultural perceptions of risk as other VFR travellers.3
With a low perception of risk and inadequate pre-travel health-seeking behaviour, an opportunistic approach to provision of pre-travel health advice to VFR travellers is required.
Opportunistic conversations about travel, especially among immunisers who may share a common language, may assist with identifying future travel plans and provide more time for fitting in vaccination.
Undergoing advanced training in travel medicine, will also support understanding about vaccine recommendations, travel risks and destinations etc.
Associate Professor Holly Seale is a social scientist researching social and behavioural factors impacting engagement with infectious disease prevention strategies at the University of New South Wales.
Holly Seale is an investigator on research studies funded by the NHMRC and has previously received funding from NSW Ministry of Health, as well as from Sanofi Pasteur, Moderna and Pfizer for investigator-driven research and consulting fees.
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[post_content] => Digital health tools can improve medicine safety and make systems more efficient – but poor system design often doesn’t bring healthcare practitioners and their patients on the journey.
From My Health Record to real-time prescription monitoring, electronic prescriptions and secure messaging, Australian pharmacists routinely use digital health in their daily practice. And there is more to come, as the use of machine learning and AI grows.
When implemented effectively, digital health tools facilitate communication and information sharing between healthcare professionals across various settings, including during transitions of care. For pharmacists, this timely access to clinical information helps to reduce medicine-related harm and improve the quality of care patients receive.
However, integrating new technologies is often not done particularly effectively. This was a key takeaway from a panel discussion at the National Medicines Symposium in November, where experts explored the use of digital tools to support safe medicine management.
Digital health challenges
[caption id="attachment_28530" align="alignright" width="220"] Professor Melissa Baysari[/caption]
For digital health tools to work in practice, they must be developed with the end user in mind, said University of Sydney Professor of Health Research Melissa Baysari. It sounds obvious and should be the norm. Sadly it isn’t. This results in the common challenges faced by users, including inadequate training, difficult-to-use technology and alert fatigue, when clinicians are inundated with too many notifications.
‘[There is a] surprising lack of involvement of end users in the design and implementation of digital systems. We definitely need more of that in healthcare,’ Prof Baysari said. ‘The technology is just one part of the wider work system. The human-technology fit is the hardest part to get right.
‘I think a lot of people feel these systems are imposed on them from senior levels, but if there was more clinician involvement in the design and understanding what problems need to be solved, people would have more ownership over the technology, and accept it and use it more.’
Another challenge is the varying use of digital health tools across the country, with some areas and settings being more advanced than others. This means the Australian health system ‘is not integrated’, said SA Pharmacy Chief Pharmacy Information Officer Michael Bakker MPS.
‘We have secure messaging, allowing delivery of referrals from a community setting into hospital, or going from hospital straight to a GP or into a patient's My Health Record,’ he said. ‘Those are very valuable, but we also need to see the emergence of tools that help do the blending of the actual workflows.
[caption id="attachment_28533" align="alignright" width="237"] Michael Bakker MPS[/caption]
‘The patient moves through the system, but you still just have this stack of paperwork. Whether we hand that to a patient as a set of papers that they can access digitally or physically, it doesn't really change that it's very difficult to navigate.’
Increasing health literacy – and digital health literacy – is essential for consumers and healthcare practitioners to interact with digital systems effectively, according to Prof Baysari.
‘I think there's a role for universities to play in ensuring that all our health professionals, as they leave, have some digital health knowledge,’ she said.
Reimagining workflows
Rather than bolting on new tools to existing systems, organisations must look at workflows holistically and identify areas for improvement, Prof Baysari said.
‘One of the challenging things is designing for current workflows to ensure that everything aligns, but also innovating and changing the way we have done things for many years because it might be safer, better or more efficient.
‘We should be designing for work as done, not work as imagined. And we should be designing for a problem, not implementing for the sake of implementation.
‘For example, I think we've overdone decision support for medication safety. We need to take a step back – what are the key problems we need to focus on when it comes to decision support and design of our systems? Let’s take a very problem focused perspective.’
Building systems to meet users’ requirements – rather than what it is assumed their requirements are – will lead to efficiencies, Mr Bakker said.
‘My hope over the next few years or decade is that we start to see tools that are built for the purposes of the people who are using them,’ he added.
Avoiding information overload
While digital health tools are often introduced with the aim of making healthcare practitioner’s lives easier, the opposite can happen, Mr Bakker said.
‘There’s some valuable evidence emerging about digital health stress, going so far as to say it contributes to burnout and people leaving the healthcare workforce altogether. We have an obligation to do something about it.
‘Not only is demand increasing, our patients are more complex, and our healthcare workforce is either not growing, can't grow, or will take too long to grow to meet that demand. We have to try and make some inroads here, appreciating that the way that we do things at the moment is actually burning people out quite a bit.’
Using digital tools to make seemingly small changes can have wide-ranging consequences, he said.
‘In South Australia alone, we have more than 4 million medication orders that are charted a year. On average, that process takes a couple of minutes for each order. If you can shrink that by 10%, you're talking about a lot of person hours that are returned back.’
In future, Prof Baysari said she hopes to see the healthcare sector get the most out of digital tools, both in terms of safety and efficiency.
‘We should be getting the benefits we expect from technology. At the moment, we’re probably achieving more in safety. I can understand there's a bit of a trade off there – if you’re going to be safe and thorough, you might need to be a little bit less efficient… But I think we're not achieving the full potential from technology. So I hope that we will.’
Watch the full panel discussion here.
[post_title] => Does technology in health care deliver on its promise?
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[post_content] => With only two weeks before school resumes, now is the ideal time for pharmacists to help parents catch up with vaccinations for their children.
“As a parent of a four and six-year-old child, I know January is typically the time when kids are getting ready for the school year,” said Jacqueline Meyer MPS, owner of LiveLife Pharmacy Cooroy and PSA Queensland Pharmacist of the Year 2023. “Let’s make sure that includes updating vaccinations.”
Ms Meyer said encouraging parents to take advantage of this window of time could help overcome practical difficulties such as a busy lifestyle, while the availability of an increasing number of vaccines at pharmacies was especially helpful in regional areas where it may be more difficult to see a GP.
Research by the National Vaccinations Insight Project found that 23.9% of parents with partially vaccinated children under the age of five did not prioritise their children's vaccination appointments over other things, while 24.8% said it was not easy to get an appointment.
As well as holidays being free of the hustle and bustle of school routine, getting immunised during the holidays means children don’t have to miss a day of school if they have mild vaccination side effects, said Samantha Kourtis, pharmacist and managing partner of Capital Chemist Charnwood in the ACT and the mother of three teenagers.
Overcoming hesitancy
Ms Meyer said it was crucial that pharmacists familiarised themselves with the laws governing vaccinations in different states and territories so they knew what part they could play in boosting immunisation.
In most states and territories pharmacists may administer vaccines to children over the age of five – in Queensland that age is two years and, in Tasmania, in some cases, 10 years.
This can be most helpful for children who have missed out on immunisations through school programs, or from a medical clinic.
Concerningly, however, new research shows vaccination coverage among children in Australia has declined for the third consecutive year.
In 2020, fully vaccinated coverage rates were 94.8% at 12 months, 92.1 at 24 months and 94.8% at five years of age. In 2023 those rates were 92.8, 90.8% and 93.3% respectively.
Between 2020 and 2023, the proportion of children vaccinated within 30 days of the recommended age also decreased for both the second dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine (from 90.1% to 83.5% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 80.3% to 74.6% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children) and the first dose of measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine (from 75.3% to 67.2% for non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children children and 64.7% to 56% for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children).
While access issues played some part in the decline, vaccine acceptance or parents’ thoughts and feelings about vaccines and parents’ social influences have also been a factor, according to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.
Researchers found 60.2% of parents felt distressed when thinking about vaccinating their children.
Pharmacist Sonia Zhu MPS, of Ramsay Pharmacy Glen Huntly, who has a four year old child, said she often has conversations with parents who feel anxious about vaccination.
“Whenever a parent is concerned, I ask them what is making them feel worried and then I am able to talk to them about the risks of the disease as opposed to the vaccine,” she said.
“I can assure them that vaccinations are just like a practice exam for your immune system and that, if their child gets the disease, they will recover better and more quickly if they are vaccinated.”
Mrs Kourtis said it was also important to reduce vaccination anxiety among children with a friendly healthcare environment, especially for younger children.
“We have regular colouring competitions, fairy doors, fun stickers and a donut stool they sit on to have their vaccination,” she said.
“We also talk to parents about what their child needs before being vaccinated. That may be to wear headphones, for example, or other measures for children who are neurodiverse.”
While Ms Zhu said lollipops were offered to children and teens, Ms Meyer said cartoon images, stuffed toys and devices that acted as distraction tools were other accessories used in pharmacies to help create a calm environment.
The teenage challenge
Vaccine rates in adolescents have also declined. Between 2022 and 2023, coverage decreased for having at least one dose of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by 15 years of age (from 85.3% to 84.2% for girls and 83.1% to 81.8% for boys); an adolescent dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine by 15 years of age (from 86.9% overall to 85.5%) and one dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine by 17 years of age (from 75.9% overall to 72.8%).
“We certainly have nowhere near the uptake of meningococcal B vaccine we would like in Queensland,” said Ms Meyer.
According to the Primary Health Network Brisbane South, in the 15 to 20-year-old cohort, just under 14% have been immunised, leaving approximately 386,000 eligible adolescents unvaccinated.
The Queensland MenB Vaccination Program announced this year provides free vaccines to eligible infants, children and adolescents, and is the largest state-funded immunisation program ever implemented in the state.
With pharmacists able to administer all of these vaccinations between year 7 and year 10, Ms Meyer sees a clear opportunity to communicate the benefits of vaccination to parents.
“I think pharmacists could reach out to local schools and offer to conduct educational sessions,” said Ms Meyer. “Community pharmacies often employ teenagers for casual or junior shifts so it may start with simply talking to existing staff that may fit the eligibility criteria for demographic.”
Mrs Kourtis said community pharmacists were well placed to have health promotions in store and on social media.
“They can also try to partner with local community and sporting organisations to promote vaccination through them,” she said.
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Australian Pharmacist is the official journal for Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Ltd.
