To describe how written medicine information can be used as an effective tool to improve quality use Selleckchem Trametinib of medicines by consumers. To present

the ‘story’ of Consumer Medicine Information research in Australia, with specific emphasis on recent research within Australia and in collaboration with researchers in the UK (University of Leeds); as well as new research initiatives (University of York). To identify the gaps in research in the area of written medicine information and potential future research directions in the field. Written information in combination with verbal advice has many positive impacts on consumers, including enhanced medicine knowledge recall and improved adherence to therapy. Written medicine information is an important tool which may be used by healthcare professionals in educating consumers about their medicines. Consumer Medicine Information or CMI, therefore, may assist in consumer education and increasing adherence to therapy. Providing information to consumers in a form that they can keep for future reference emphasising its importance and key messages, and clarifying its content through verbal

counselling, can assist in ensuring safe and effective use of medicines by consumers. Although clarifying the information within a CMI is an important task for pharmacists, an ‘ideal’ CMI which is written in a language than can be easily read and understood ZD1839 datasheet by consumers, will minimise this role and allow more time for additional information, such

as disease Flavopiridol (Alvocidib) specific information to be provided, and increase the likelihood of its use by pharmacists, consumers and other healthcare professionals. The research conducted by Aslani and colleagues aims to optimise CMI as an effective tool which can be used by healthcare professionals, namely pharmacists, in educating consumers about their medicines during the consultation process. Three approaches have been taken to achieve this: Educating pharmacists on the value of CMI and how best to use them in their practice: This has been achieved through investigating how pharmacists use CMI, and developing an educational programme to foster increased CMI provision and use as part of the verbal counselling process. The educational programme has been integrated into pharmacy degree curricula, and implemented in pharmacy practice. The educational programme can also be implemented with other healthcare professionals, though provision of medicine information has been cited as a primary role of pharmacists.