Sian Powell
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[post_content] => Case scenario
Alicia, 27, visits your pharmacy regularly for naproxen and heat patches to manage period pain. She confides that her pain has worsened over the past 2 years, radiates down her legs, interferes with work and affects intimacy.
Her periods are heavy, lasting around 9 days, and leave her feeling exhausted and sometimes even bedridden. Alicia has seen several GPs, who told her it was ‘normal for your age’. She says, ‘It feels like someone’s wringing out my insides – nothing helps much. Is this really normal?’
Learning objectivesAfter reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
|
References: Therapeutic Guidelines1, Buggio et al12, Rossi13 Hornstein26, Vercellini27
Note: Bone mineral density typically recovers within two years of cessation of GnRH therapies.27
Drospirenone currently off-label for endometriosis in Australia.1
The addition of Ryeqo (relugolix, estradiol, norethisterone) (July 2022) and Visanne (dienogest) (December 2024) to the PBS expands accessible hormonal therapy options for endometriosis.29
Case scenario continuedYou reassure Alicia that severe period pain is not something she has to accept and suggest tracking her symptoms with a menstrual diary and consulting a women’s health GP. You also provide advice on safe NSAID use and non-pharmacological strategies. Alicia returns 2 months later, now diagnosed with endometriosis and receiving hormonal therapy and pelvic physiotherapy. She continues to experience chronic pelvic pain and questions her medicines, so you organise a Home Medicines Review, identifying potential naproxen overuse and interactions with her sertraline, prompting treatment adjustments. You also recommend a local endometriosis support group, which Alicia joins, and she has since referred two friends with similar symptoms. Through ongoing support, she feels more empowered to manage her condition. |
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[post_content] => New Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommendations could significantly change who can access funded COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.
At its December 2025 meeting, PBAC considered applications for funding COVID-19 vaccines and RSV vaccines on the National Immunisation Program (NIP). While both recommendations were positive, how would they apply in practice?
Smaller cohort recommended for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility
PBAC recommended significantly tighter eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines going forward.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Program – including the community pharmacy program is scheduled to end on 30 June 2026. While no announcements have yet been made, the PBAC outcomes signal COVID-19 vaccination will be incorporated into the NIP. PBAC recommendation is an important step to enable this NIP listing.
PBAC considered a proposal to fund Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines in a smaller population cohort. The proposal has been supported by PBAC, recommending NIP funding for four cohorts of adults as requested by Pfizer, the product sponsor.
Who would be eligible for funded COVID-19 vaccination?
For current and future Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines, PBAC’s recommendation supports NIP funding in specific age and risk groups only.
Under this framework, NIP-funded doses would only be available for patients who are:
There’s no clear timeframe. PBAC recommendations for vaccines require price negotiation, government approval, procurement and regulatory listing to become funded on the NIP.
Given the expiry of COVID-19 immunisation program funding, 1 July 2026 could be a potential implementation date for the COVID-19 NIP funding. Current COVID-19 vaccine program eligibility is based on ATAGI advice, so changes could happen at any time ATAGI chooses to provide updated advice.
And as for patients asking when the RSV vaccine may be funded on the NIP? They probably could be encouraged to keep their eye on the TV news for any future announcements!
Upskill in vaccination administration and legislation by visiting the PSA Vaccination (immunisation) Education Hub. [post_title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-04 15:42:54 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-04 04:42:54 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31282 [authorType] => )
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[post_content] => Genevieve Adamo MPS did not set out to work in poisons information. After beginning her career in community pharmacy as an assistant pharmacist and progressing into management, Ms Adamo joined the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre in 2004.
‘I sort of fell into poisons,’ she said. ‘After having a few children, I had some time off and wanted to do something where I was learning again.’
Each call is different, providing a continuous learning opportunity, said Ms Adamo, who took on a role with the National Poisons Register in 2023.
‘You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end of the phone when you pick it up,’ she added.
Because so many of the calls to the poisons centre related to medicines poisoning, whether overdoses or errors, being a pharmacist is a distinct advantage.
‘We have really extensive knowledge of the drugs, as well as a really good base in physiology and pharmacology,’ Ms Adamo said.
[caption id="attachment_18818" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Genevieve Adamo MPS (Image: Steve Christo Photography)[/caption]
Here, she outlines what’s needed to enter and flourish in the space, as told to delegates at PSA’s Voices of Pharmacy – Passion, Purpose and Possibility webinar, held on 26 November 2025.
Core skills for poisons information practice
Poisons information demands a distinct skill set, combining deep scientific knowledge with the ability to work confidently under pressure. Calls are often urgent, information may be incomplete and decisions must be made quickly.
‘Every call provides a clinical problem that you’ve got to solve. Many of which there’s no clear answer,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘And we can't always look something up in a reference [because] not everything is listed there.’
Because it’s neither ethical nor feasible to conduct controlled trials in poisoning, evidence gaps are common.
‘We can’t go and poison a whole lot of people to create clinical trials to find the answers for poisoning questions. We have to wait until these situations happen and then turn those into research themselves,’ she said. ‘So because of that, we often have to go back to basics, and use those pharmacology principles we learned way back in uni.’
This includes:
‘You’ve got to get all the history, work out what you know, look things up and provide advice all within about 5 minutes.' Genevieve Adamo MPS‘We all have the ability to be involved in research, because we're recruiting patients through our calls,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Our staff also create new guidelines for education and training, supporting both external poisoning prevention initiatives and the ongoing training of new and existing staff.’ Another major function is toxicovigilance – the systematic monitoring of poisoning trends with a focus on prevention and risk reduction. ‘That can involve all sorts of things [including] media and education,’ she said. ‘There’s often a lot of number crunching as well, and then working with regulators to change the laws to restrict access, because we know that one of the best ways to minimise harm and exposures is to restrict access.’ A key scheduling change Ms Adamo and her team were involved in was the changes to paracetamol regulations that were ushered in early last year. ‘We were contracted by the TGA to collect extra information about all the paracetamol calls we got,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Paracetamol calls are the most common call to the poison centre every year, and all of that information was collated by our Head of Research and our consultant toxicologists – with the report used as the basis for the proposed scheduling changes that occurred.’ Sometimes individual cases can lead to broader system change. ‘I was involved in a case with a mum whose little one got really sick, and it was eventually worked out that it was a chronic choline salicylate toxicity,’ she said. ‘She couldn’t believe she’d been giving this poison to her kid and didn’t realise it was poisonous, because she bought it from [a supermarket] and thought it must be safe.’ In response, Adamo submitted an application to reschedule choline salicylate to Schedule 2. ‘Now it has to have more labelling, and it can only be available in a pharmacy,’ she said. ‘Those are the really interesting and rewarding aspects of poisoning work.’ For pharmacists considering the field, Ms Adamo believes the appeal lies in its tangible public health impact – shaping national safety standards and preventing future harm, particularly among children. ‘You know the work you’re doing actually changes outcomes.’ Read PSA’s Medicine Safety: Child and adolescent care report to understand the key poisoning risks and how pharmacists can help mitigate them. [post_title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [post_excerpt] => Poisons information pharmacists turn individual calls into population-level insights that inform regulatory and scheduling decisions. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-02 18:25:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-02 07:25:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31254 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31258 [authorType] => )
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[post_content] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
What’s beneficial about learning different specialties in pharmacy?
Each specialty offers a unique focus, with the learning from each area building upon the others to create a comprehensive understanding of clinical pharmacy service delivery.
I am currently a clinical pharmacist with Western Sydney Local Health District and a research team member and practice change facilitator at the University of Technology Sydney. But I have worked in many different clinical roles. My experience in the intensive care unit, for example, helped develop my ability to review acutely unwell patients – including those with infections, trauma, respiratory failure and organ failure.
In this setting, I managed a diverse range of critically ill patients with complex medicines regimens – involving supportive therapies such as inotropes and vasopressors, sedation
and antimicrobials.
My practice involved designing individualised treatment plans for patients, particularly those receiving extracorporeal therapies such as renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
This background informed my practice in the emergency department, where sound clinical reasoning was vital to delivering effective advice and interventions in fast-paced, high-
pressure situations.
Can you describe your global research review of pharmacist-prescribed contraception services?
In response to barriers accessing contraception, such as the need for a prescription, pharmacist-prescribed contraception has been widely implemented and one common model of care delivers this service using clinical protocols. The review highlighted that the overall scope of these services includes both the prescribing (initiating) and continuation of various contraceptive methods, such as oral contraceptive pills, vaginal rings, transdermal patches and injections. A key finding was that the scope of practice varies internationally, depending on local authorisation and regulatory frameworks.
It was recognised that while conceptually, the clinical protocol is one part of the intervention, education is another important part of the overall provision of care.
This includes recognition of the importance of both foundational education and additional training for pharmacists.
It was evident that authorising pharmacists to prescribe and continue a range of contraception options ultimately offers the best access for women.
At the same time, pharmacist education and training is an important part of the broader piece in pharmacist prescribing – particularly in the current Australian context, as pharmacist prescribing continues to develop and expand.
Your advice for other early ECPs interested in clinical pharmacy?
Seek out opportunities to broaden your knowledge and skills.
If you’re a pharmacy student or ECP interested in hospital pharmacy, look for courses, mentorship programs and professional development opportunities that align with your goals.
Hospital pharmacy is dynamic, exciting and rewarding – there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we as pharmacists can contribute to.
Ask questions and say yes to challenges that push you to grow. Be curious, be kind and keep learning.
[post_title] => Expanding clinical judgement beyond a single specialty
[post_excerpt] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
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[post_content] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
Medicine safety has long depended on pharmacists making critical decisions with incomplete information. As prescribing becomes increasingly fragmented across face-to-face care, telehealth and digital platforms, those gaps are widening – with serious consequences for patients.
Reforms announced by Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler this morning aim to address this issue, eventually leading to a National Medicines Record.
The announcement follows advocacy by Alison Collins after the death of her daughter Erin, who died in 2024 after being prescribed medicines through multiple digital health platforms without a complete view of her medical history.
Erin’s story
Erin was 24 years old and had been taking multiple medicines for her mental health. She had been hospitalised multiple times for problems stemming from medicine misuse and was placed on daily staged supply pickup of her medicines.
The hospital care teams were so concerned they placed multiple warning messages in her My Health Record. However, these warnings were not accessed by telehealth services or local pharmacies prior to her fatal overdose.
Erin’s case highlighted systemic vulnerabilities that pharmacists have warned about for years, particularly as digital prescribing expands faster than the safeguards designed to support safe, coordinated care.
The first step
Initially, the reforms would require all medicines information from online prescribers to be uploaded to My Health Record For pharmacists, this will make a fuller picture of all the medicines a patient has been prescribed more visible. This is critical given the increasing number of prescribers an individual may have with the rise of telehealth and condition-specific providers.
Under the proposed changes, medicines prescribed and dispensed through online platforms – including the clinical context for prescribing – would be made available through My Health Record. This is intended to help reduce the risk of medicine errors, adverse drug reactions and inappropriate use by ensuring healthcare professionals have access to more complete and timely information.
The path to a National Medicines Record
The reforms also commit the Government to designing and developing a National Medicines Record using existing digital health infrastructure, including electronic prescribing, the Active Script List and My Health Record.
While details are still emerging, the proposal has the potential to address a core challenge for pharmacists: how to identify and resolve medicines-related risks without a reliable, up-to-date picture of a patient’s full medicines history.
Welcoming the announcement, PSA National President Professor Mark Naunton MPS noted it aligns with the profession's long standing advocacy.
'Pharmacists have consistently sought better-connected digital health systems to improve patient safety with medicines. It’s something PSA has been advocating for over many years, including through our flagship medicine safety report series,” Prof. Naunton said.
'Access to a more complete and reliable medicines record has the potential to significantly improve patient safety and strengthen clinical decision-making.'
'The announcement is fully aligned with PSA’s ongoing advocacy to improve medicines safety systems and ensure pharmacists are supported as medicines experts across all settings of care,' he continued.
'PSA will engage in the consultation for these proposals and continue to work with the Government to support system improvements that make medicine use in Australia safer.'
A consultation period is now underway to guide the inclusion of medicines information from all online prescribers by default, with the first phase expected to be completed by December 2026. The Government has also flagged ongoing enhancements to the 1800MEDICARE app to support medicines management.
[post_title] => What a National Medicines Record might mean for patient safety and pharmacy practice
[post_excerpt] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
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[post_content] => Case scenario
Alicia, 27, visits your pharmacy regularly for naproxen and heat patches to manage period pain. She confides that her pain has worsened over the past 2 years, radiates down her legs, interferes with work and affects intimacy.
Her periods are heavy, lasting around 9 days, and leave her feeling exhausted and sometimes even bedridden. Alicia has seen several GPs, who told her it was ‘normal for your age’. She says, ‘It feels like someone’s wringing out my insides – nothing helps much. Is this really normal?’
Learning objectivesAfter reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
|
References: Therapeutic Guidelines1, Buggio et al12, Rossi13 Hornstein26, Vercellini27
Note: Bone mineral density typically recovers within two years of cessation of GnRH therapies.27
Drospirenone currently off-label for endometriosis in Australia.1
The addition of Ryeqo (relugolix, estradiol, norethisterone) (July 2022) and Visanne (dienogest) (December 2024) to the PBS expands accessible hormonal therapy options for endometriosis.29
Case scenario continuedYou reassure Alicia that severe period pain is not something she has to accept and suggest tracking her symptoms with a menstrual diary and consulting a women’s health GP. You also provide advice on safe NSAID use and non-pharmacological strategies. Alicia returns 2 months later, now diagnosed with endometriosis and receiving hormonal therapy and pelvic physiotherapy. She continues to experience chronic pelvic pain and questions her medicines, so you organise a Home Medicines Review, identifying potential naproxen overuse and interactions with her sertraline, prompting treatment adjustments. You also recommend a local endometriosis support group, which Alicia joins, and she has since referred two friends with similar symptoms. Through ongoing support, she feels more empowered to manage her condition. |
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[post_content] => New Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommendations could significantly change who can access funded COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.
At its December 2025 meeting, PBAC considered applications for funding COVID-19 vaccines and RSV vaccines on the National Immunisation Program (NIP). While both recommendations were positive, how would they apply in practice?
Smaller cohort recommended for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility
PBAC recommended significantly tighter eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines going forward.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Program – including the community pharmacy program is scheduled to end on 30 June 2026. While no announcements have yet been made, the PBAC outcomes signal COVID-19 vaccination will be incorporated into the NIP. PBAC recommendation is an important step to enable this NIP listing.
PBAC considered a proposal to fund Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines in a smaller population cohort. The proposal has been supported by PBAC, recommending NIP funding for four cohorts of adults as requested by Pfizer, the product sponsor.
Who would be eligible for funded COVID-19 vaccination?
For current and future Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines, PBAC’s recommendation supports NIP funding in specific age and risk groups only.
Under this framework, NIP-funded doses would only be available for patients who are:
There’s no clear timeframe. PBAC recommendations for vaccines require price negotiation, government approval, procurement and regulatory listing to become funded on the NIP.
Given the expiry of COVID-19 immunisation program funding, 1 July 2026 could be a potential implementation date for the COVID-19 NIP funding. Current COVID-19 vaccine program eligibility is based on ATAGI advice, so changes could happen at any time ATAGI chooses to provide updated advice.
And as for patients asking when the RSV vaccine may be funded on the NIP? They probably could be encouraged to keep their eye on the TV news for any future announcements!
Upskill in vaccination administration and legislation by visiting the PSA Vaccination (immunisation) Education Hub. [post_title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-04 15:42:54 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-04 04:42:54 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31282 [authorType] => )td_module_mega_menu Object
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[post_content] => Genevieve Adamo MPS did not set out to work in poisons information. After beginning her career in community pharmacy as an assistant pharmacist and progressing into management, Ms Adamo joined the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre in 2004.
‘I sort of fell into poisons,’ she said. ‘After having a few children, I had some time off and wanted to do something where I was learning again.’
Each call is different, providing a continuous learning opportunity, said Ms Adamo, who took on a role with the National Poisons Register in 2023.
‘You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end of the phone when you pick it up,’ she added.
Because so many of the calls to the poisons centre related to medicines poisoning, whether overdoses or errors, being a pharmacist is a distinct advantage.
‘We have really extensive knowledge of the drugs, as well as a really good base in physiology and pharmacology,’ Ms Adamo said.
[caption id="attachment_18818" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Genevieve Adamo MPS (Image: Steve Christo Photography)[/caption]
Here, she outlines what’s needed to enter and flourish in the space, as told to delegates at PSA’s Voices of Pharmacy – Passion, Purpose and Possibility webinar, held on 26 November 2025.
Core skills for poisons information practice
Poisons information demands a distinct skill set, combining deep scientific knowledge with the ability to work confidently under pressure. Calls are often urgent, information may be incomplete and decisions must be made quickly.
‘Every call provides a clinical problem that you’ve got to solve. Many of which there’s no clear answer,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘And we can't always look something up in a reference [because] not everything is listed there.’
Because it’s neither ethical nor feasible to conduct controlled trials in poisoning, evidence gaps are common.
‘We can’t go and poison a whole lot of people to create clinical trials to find the answers for poisoning questions. We have to wait until these situations happen and then turn those into research themselves,’ she said. ‘So because of that, we often have to go back to basics, and use those pharmacology principles we learned way back in uni.’
This includes:
‘You’ve got to get all the history, work out what you know, look things up and provide advice all within about 5 minutes.' Genevieve Adamo MPS‘We all have the ability to be involved in research, because we're recruiting patients through our calls,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Our staff also create new guidelines for education and training, supporting both external poisoning prevention initiatives and the ongoing training of new and existing staff.’ Another major function is toxicovigilance – the systematic monitoring of poisoning trends with a focus on prevention and risk reduction. ‘That can involve all sorts of things [including] media and education,’ she said. ‘There’s often a lot of number crunching as well, and then working with regulators to change the laws to restrict access, because we know that one of the best ways to minimise harm and exposures is to restrict access.’ A key scheduling change Ms Adamo and her team were involved in was the changes to paracetamol regulations that were ushered in early last year. ‘We were contracted by the TGA to collect extra information about all the paracetamol calls we got,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Paracetamol calls are the most common call to the poison centre every year, and all of that information was collated by our Head of Research and our consultant toxicologists – with the report used as the basis for the proposed scheduling changes that occurred.’ Sometimes individual cases can lead to broader system change. ‘I was involved in a case with a mum whose little one got really sick, and it was eventually worked out that it was a chronic choline salicylate toxicity,’ she said. ‘She couldn’t believe she’d been giving this poison to her kid and didn’t realise it was poisonous, because she bought it from [a supermarket] and thought it must be safe.’ In response, Adamo submitted an application to reschedule choline salicylate to Schedule 2. ‘Now it has to have more labelling, and it can only be available in a pharmacy,’ she said. ‘Those are the really interesting and rewarding aspects of poisoning work.’ For pharmacists considering the field, Ms Adamo believes the appeal lies in its tangible public health impact – shaping national safety standards and preventing future harm, particularly among children. ‘You know the work you’re doing actually changes outcomes.’ Read PSA’s Medicine Safety: Child and adolescent care report to understand the key poisoning risks and how pharmacists can help mitigate them. [post_title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [post_excerpt] => Poisons information pharmacists turn individual calls into population-level insights that inform regulatory and scheduling decisions. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-02 18:25:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-02 07:25:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31254 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31258 [authorType] => )
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[post_content] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
What’s beneficial about learning different specialties in pharmacy?
Each specialty offers a unique focus, with the learning from each area building upon the others to create a comprehensive understanding of clinical pharmacy service delivery.
I am currently a clinical pharmacist with Western Sydney Local Health District and a research team member and practice change facilitator at the University of Technology Sydney. But I have worked in many different clinical roles. My experience in the intensive care unit, for example, helped develop my ability to review acutely unwell patients – including those with infections, trauma, respiratory failure and organ failure.
In this setting, I managed a diverse range of critically ill patients with complex medicines regimens – involving supportive therapies such as inotropes and vasopressors, sedation
and antimicrobials.
My practice involved designing individualised treatment plans for patients, particularly those receiving extracorporeal therapies such as renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
This background informed my practice in the emergency department, where sound clinical reasoning was vital to delivering effective advice and interventions in fast-paced, high-
pressure situations.
Can you describe your global research review of pharmacist-prescribed contraception services?
In response to barriers accessing contraception, such as the need for a prescription, pharmacist-prescribed contraception has been widely implemented and one common model of care delivers this service using clinical protocols. The review highlighted that the overall scope of these services includes both the prescribing (initiating) and continuation of various contraceptive methods, such as oral contraceptive pills, vaginal rings, transdermal patches and injections. A key finding was that the scope of practice varies internationally, depending on local authorisation and regulatory frameworks.
It was recognised that while conceptually, the clinical protocol is one part of the intervention, education is another important part of the overall provision of care.
This includes recognition of the importance of both foundational education and additional training for pharmacists.
It was evident that authorising pharmacists to prescribe and continue a range of contraception options ultimately offers the best access for women.
At the same time, pharmacist education and training is an important part of the broader piece in pharmacist prescribing – particularly in the current Australian context, as pharmacist prescribing continues to develop and expand.
Your advice for other early ECPs interested in clinical pharmacy?
Seek out opportunities to broaden your knowledge and skills.
If you’re a pharmacy student or ECP interested in hospital pharmacy, look for courses, mentorship programs and professional development opportunities that align with your goals.
Hospital pharmacy is dynamic, exciting and rewarding – there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we as pharmacists can contribute to.
Ask questions and say yes to challenges that push you to grow. Be curious, be kind and keep learning.
[post_title] => Expanding clinical judgement beyond a single specialty
[post_excerpt] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
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[post_content] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
Medicine safety has long depended on pharmacists making critical decisions with incomplete information. As prescribing becomes increasingly fragmented across face-to-face care, telehealth and digital platforms, those gaps are widening – with serious consequences for patients.
Reforms announced by Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler this morning aim to address this issue, eventually leading to a National Medicines Record.
The announcement follows advocacy by Alison Collins after the death of her daughter Erin, who died in 2024 after being prescribed medicines through multiple digital health platforms without a complete view of her medical history.
Erin’s story
Erin was 24 years old and had been taking multiple medicines for her mental health. She had been hospitalised multiple times for problems stemming from medicine misuse and was placed on daily staged supply pickup of her medicines.
The hospital care teams were so concerned they placed multiple warning messages in her My Health Record. However, these warnings were not accessed by telehealth services or local pharmacies prior to her fatal overdose.
Erin’s case highlighted systemic vulnerabilities that pharmacists have warned about for years, particularly as digital prescribing expands faster than the safeguards designed to support safe, coordinated care.
The first step
Initially, the reforms would require all medicines information from online prescribers to be uploaded to My Health Record For pharmacists, this will make a fuller picture of all the medicines a patient has been prescribed more visible. This is critical given the increasing number of prescribers an individual may have with the rise of telehealth and condition-specific providers.
Under the proposed changes, medicines prescribed and dispensed through online platforms – including the clinical context for prescribing – would be made available through My Health Record. This is intended to help reduce the risk of medicine errors, adverse drug reactions and inappropriate use by ensuring healthcare professionals have access to more complete and timely information.
The path to a National Medicines Record
The reforms also commit the Government to designing and developing a National Medicines Record using existing digital health infrastructure, including electronic prescribing, the Active Script List and My Health Record.
While details are still emerging, the proposal has the potential to address a core challenge for pharmacists: how to identify and resolve medicines-related risks without a reliable, up-to-date picture of a patient’s full medicines history.
Welcoming the announcement, PSA National President Professor Mark Naunton MPS noted it aligns with the profession's long standing advocacy.
'Pharmacists have consistently sought better-connected digital health systems to improve patient safety with medicines. It’s something PSA has been advocating for over many years, including through our flagship medicine safety report series,” Prof. Naunton said.
'Access to a more complete and reliable medicines record has the potential to significantly improve patient safety and strengthen clinical decision-making.'
'The announcement is fully aligned with PSA’s ongoing advocacy to improve medicines safety systems and ensure pharmacists are supported as medicines experts across all settings of care,' he continued.
'PSA will engage in the consultation for these proposals and continue to work with the Government to support system improvements that make medicine use in Australia safer.'
A consultation period is now underway to guide the inclusion of medicines information from all online prescribers by default, with the first phase expected to be completed by December 2026. The Government has also flagged ongoing enhancements to the 1800MEDICARE app to support medicines management.
[post_title] => What a National Medicines Record might mean for patient safety and pharmacy practice
[post_excerpt] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
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[post_content] => Case scenario
Alicia, 27, visits your pharmacy regularly for naproxen and heat patches to manage period pain. She confides that her pain has worsened over the past 2 years, radiates down her legs, interferes with work and affects intimacy.
Her periods are heavy, lasting around 9 days, and leave her feeling exhausted and sometimes even bedridden. Alicia has seen several GPs, who told her it was ‘normal for your age’. She says, ‘It feels like someone’s wringing out my insides – nothing helps much. Is this really normal?’
Learning objectivesAfter reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
|
References: Therapeutic Guidelines1, Buggio et al12, Rossi13 Hornstein26, Vercellini27
Note: Bone mineral density typically recovers within two years of cessation of GnRH therapies.27
Drospirenone currently off-label for endometriosis in Australia.1
The addition of Ryeqo (relugolix, estradiol, norethisterone) (July 2022) and Visanne (dienogest) (December 2024) to the PBS expands accessible hormonal therapy options for endometriosis.29
Case scenario continuedYou reassure Alicia that severe period pain is not something she has to accept and suggest tracking her symptoms with a menstrual diary and consulting a women’s health GP. You also provide advice on safe NSAID use and non-pharmacological strategies. Alicia returns 2 months later, now diagnosed with endometriosis and receiving hormonal therapy and pelvic physiotherapy. She continues to experience chronic pelvic pain and questions her medicines, so you organise a Home Medicines Review, identifying potential naproxen overuse and interactions with her sertraline, prompting treatment adjustments. You also recommend a local endometriosis support group, which Alicia joins, and she has since referred two friends with similar symptoms. Through ongoing support, she feels more empowered to manage her condition. |
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[post_content] => New Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommendations could significantly change who can access funded COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.
At its December 2025 meeting, PBAC considered applications for funding COVID-19 vaccines and RSV vaccines on the National Immunisation Program (NIP). While both recommendations were positive, how would they apply in practice?
Smaller cohort recommended for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility
PBAC recommended significantly tighter eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines going forward.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Program – including the community pharmacy program is scheduled to end on 30 June 2026. While no announcements have yet been made, the PBAC outcomes signal COVID-19 vaccination will be incorporated into the NIP. PBAC recommendation is an important step to enable this NIP listing.
PBAC considered a proposal to fund Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines in a smaller population cohort. The proposal has been supported by PBAC, recommending NIP funding for four cohorts of adults as requested by Pfizer, the product sponsor.
Who would be eligible for funded COVID-19 vaccination?
For current and future Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines, PBAC’s recommendation supports NIP funding in specific age and risk groups only.
Under this framework, NIP-funded doses would only be available for patients who are:
There’s no clear timeframe. PBAC recommendations for vaccines require price negotiation, government approval, procurement and regulatory listing to become funded on the NIP.
Given the expiry of COVID-19 immunisation program funding, 1 July 2026 could be a potential implementation date for the COVID-19 NIP funding. Current COVID-19 vaccine program eligibility is based on ATAGI advice, so changes could happen at any time ATAGI chooses to provide updated advice.
And as for patients asking when the RSV vaccine may be funded on the NIP? They probably could be encouraged to keep their eye on the TV news for any future announcements!
Upskill in vaccination administration and legislation by visiting the PSA Vaccination (immunisation) Education Hub. [post_title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-04 15:42:54 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-04 04:42:54 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31282 [authorType] => )td_module_mega_menu Object
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[post_content] => Genevieve Adamo MPS did not set out to work in poisons information. After beginning her career in community pharmacy as an assistant pharmacist and progressing into management, Ms Adamo joined the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre in 2004.
‘I sort of fell into poisons,’ she said. ‘After having a few children, I had some time off and wanted to do something where I was learning again.’
Each call is different, providing a continuous learning opportunity, said Ms Adamo, who took on a role with the National Poisons Register in 2023.
‘You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end of the phone when you pick it up,’ she added.
Because so many of the calls to the poisons centre related to medicines poisoning, whether overdoses or errors, being a pharmacist is a distinct advantage.
‘We have really extensive knowledge of the drugs, as well as a really good base in physiology and pharmacology,’ Ms Adamo said.
[caption id="attachment_18818" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Genevieve Adamo MPS (Image: Steve Christo Photography)[/caption]
Here, she outlines what’s needed to enter and flourish in the space, as told to delegates at PSA’s Voices of Pharmacy – Passion, Purpose and Possibility webinar, held on 26 November 2025.
Core skills for poisons information practice
Poisons information demands a distinct skill set, combining deep scientific knowledge with the ability to work confidently under pressure. Calls are often urgent, information may be incomplete and decisions must be made quickly.
‘Every call provides a clinical problem that you’ve got to solve. Many of which there’s no clear answer,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘And we can't always look something up in a reference [because] not everything is listed there.’
Because it’s neither ethical nor feasible to conduct controlled trials in poisoning, evidence gaps are common.
‘We can’t go and poison a whole lot of people to create clinical trials to find the answers for poisoning questions. We have to wait until these situations happen and then turn those into research themselves,’ she said. ‘So because of that, we often have to go back to basics, and use those pharmacology principles we learned way back in uni.’
This includes:
‘You’ve got to get all the history, work out what you know, look things up and provide advice all within about 5 minutes.' Genevieve Adamo MPS‘We all have the ability to be involved in research, because we're recruiting patients through our calls,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Our staff also create new guidelines for education and training, supporting both external poisoning prevention initiatives and the ongoing training of new and existing staff.’ Another major function is toxicovigilance – the systematic monitoring of poisoning trends with a focus on prevention and risk reduction. ‘That can involve all sorts of things [including] media and education,’ she said. ‘There’s often a lot of number crunching as well, and then working with regulators to change the laws to restrict access, because we know that one of the best ways to minimise harm and exposures is to restrict access.’ A key scheduling change Ms Adamo and her team were involved in was the changes to paracetamol regulations that were ushered in early last year. ‘We were contracted by the TGA to collect extra information about all the paracetamol calls we got,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Paracetamol calls are the most common call to the poison centre every year, and all of that information was collated by our Head of Research and our consultant toxicologists – with the report used as the basis for the proposed scheduling changes that occurred.’ Sometimes individual cases can lead to broader system change. ‘I was involved in a case with a mum whose little one got really sick, and it was eventually worked out that it was a chronic choline salicylate toxicity,’ she said. ‘She couldn’t believe she’d been giving this poison to her kid and didn’t realise it was poisonous, because she bought it from [a supermarket] and thought it must be safe.’ In response, Adamo submitted an application to reschedule choline salicylate to Schedule 2. ‘Now it has to have more labelling, and it can only be available in a pharmacy,’ she said. ‘Those are the really interesting and rewarding aspects of poisoning work.’ For pharmacists considering the field, Ms Adamo believes the appeal lies in its tangible public health impact – shaping national safety standards and preventing future harm, particularly among children. ‘You know the work you’re doing actually changes outcomes.’ Read PSA’s Medicine Safety: Child and adolescent care report to understand the key poisoning risks and how pharmacists can help mitigate them. [post_title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [post_excerpt] => Poisons information pharmacists turn individual calls into population-level insights that inform regulatory and scheduling decisions. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-02 18:25:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-02 07:25:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31254 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31258 [authorType] => )
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[post_content] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
What’s beneficial about learning different specialties in pharmacy?
Each specialty offers a unique focus, with the learning from each area building upon the others to create a comprehensive understanding of clinical pharmacy service delivery.
I am currently a clinical pharmacist with Western Sydney Local Health District and a research team member and practice change facilitator at the University of Technology Sydney. But I have worked in many different clinical roles. My experience in the intensive care unit, for example, helped develop my ability to review acutely unwell patients – including those with infections, trauma, respiratory failure and organ failure.
In this setting, I managed a diverse range of critically ill patients with complex medicines regimens – involving supportive therapies such as inotropes and vasopressors, sedation
and antimicrobials.
My practice involved designing individualised treatment plans for patients, particularly those receiving extracorporeal therapies such as renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
This background informed my practice in the emergency department, where sound clinical reasoning was vital to delivering effective advice and interventions in fast-paced, high-
pressure situations.
Can you describe your global research review of pharmacist-prescribed contraception services?
In response to barriers accessing contraception, such as the need for a prescription, pharmacist-prescribed contraception has been widely implemented and one common model of care delivers this service using clinical protocols. The review highlighted that the overall scope of these services includes both the prescribing (initiating) and continuation of various contraceptive methods, such as oral contraceptive pills, vaginal rings, transdermal patches and injections. A key finding was that the scope of practice varies internationally, depending on local authorisation and regulatory frameworks.
It was recognised that while conceptually, the clinical protocol is one part of the intervention, education is another important part of the overall provision of care.
This includes recognition of the importance of both foundational education and additional training for pharmacists.
It was evident that authorising pharmacists to prescribe and continue a range of contraception options ultimately offers the best access for women.
At the same time, pharmacist education and training is an important part of the broader piece in pharmacist prescribing – particularly in the current Australian context, as pharmacist prescribing continues to develop and expand.
Your advice for other early ECPs interested in clinical pharmacy?
Seek out opportunities to broaden your knowledge and skills.
If you’re a pharmacy student or ECP interested in hospital pharmacy, look for courses, mentorship programs and professional development opportunities that align with your goals.
Hospital pharmacy is dynamic, exciting and rewarding – there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we as pharmacists can contribute to.
Ask questions and say yes to challenges that push you to grow. Be curious, be kind and keep learning.
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[post_content] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
Medicine safety has long depended on pharmacists making critical decisions with incomplete information. As prescribing becomes increasingly fragmented across face-to-face care, telehealth and digital platforms, those gaps are widening – with serious consequences for patients.
Reforms announced by Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler this morning aim to address this issue, eventually leading to a National Medicines Record.
The announcement follows advocacy by Alison Collins after the death of her daughter Erin, who died in 2024 after being prescribed medicines through multiple digital health platforms without a complete view of her medical history.
Erin’s story
Erin was 24 years old and had been taking multiple medicines for her mental health. She had been hospitalised multiple times for problems stemming from medicine misuse and was placed on daily staged supply pickup of her medicines.
The hospital care teams were so concerned they placed multiple warning messages in her My Health Record. However, these warnings were not accessed by telehealth services or local pharmacies prior to her fatal overdose.
Erin’s case highlighted systemic vulnerabilities that pharmacists have warned about for years, particularly as digital prescribing expands faster than the safeguards designed to support safe, coordinated care.
The first step
Initially, the reforms would require all medicines information from online prescribers to be uploaded to My Health Record For pharmacists, this will make a fuller picture of all the medicines a patient has been prescribed more visible. This is critical given the increasing number of prescribers an individual may have with the rise of telehealth and condition-specific providers.
Under the proposed changes, medicines prescribed and dispensed through online platforms – including the clinical context for prescribing – would be made available through My Health Record. This is intended to help reduce the risk of medicine errors, adverse drug reactions and inappropriate use by ensuring healthcare professionals have access to more complete and timely information.
The path to a National Medicines Record
The reforms also commit the Government to designing and developing a National Medicines Record using existing digital health infrastructure, including electronic prescribing, the Active Script List and My Health Record.
While details are still emerging, the proposal has the potential to address a core challenge for pharmacists: how to identify and resolve medicines-related risks without a reliable, up-to-date picture of a patient’s full medicines history.
Welcoming the announcement, PSA National President Professor Mark Naunton MPS noted it aligns with the profession's long standing advocacy.
'Pharmacists have consistently sought better-connected digital health systems to improve patient safety with medicines. It’s something PSA has been advocating for over many years, including through our flagship medicine safety report series,” Prof. Naunton said.
'Access to a more complete and reliable medicines record has the potential to significantly improve patient safety and strengthen clinical decision-making.'
'The announcement is fully aligned with PSA’s ongoing advocacy to improve medicines safety systems and ensure pharmacists are supported as medicines experts across all settings of care,' he continued.
'PSA will engage in the consultation for these proposals and continue to work with the Government to support system improvements that make medicine use in Australia safer.'
A consultation period is now underway to guide the inclusion of medicines information from all online prescribers by default, with the first phase expected to be completed by December 2026. The Government has also flagged ongoing enhancements to the 1800MEDICARE app to support medicines management.
[post_title] => What a National Medicines Record might mean for patient safety and pharmacy practice
[post_excerpt] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
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[post_content] => Case scenario
Alicia, 27, visits your pharmacy regularly for naproxen and heat patches to manage period pain. She confides that her pain has worsened over the past 2 years, radiates down her legs, interferes with work and affects intimacy.
Her periods are heavy, lasting around 9 days, and leave her feeling exhausted and sometimes even bedridden. Alicia has seen several GPs, who told her it was ‘normal for your age’. She says, ‘It feels like someone’s wringing out my insides – nothing helps much. Is this really normal?’
Learning objectivesAfter reading this article, pharmacists should be able to:
|
References: Therapeutic Guidelines1, Buggio et al12, Rossi13 Hornstein26, Vercellini27
Note: Bone mineral density typically recovers within two years of cessation of GnRH therapies.27
Drospirenone currently off-label for endometriosis in Australia.1
The addition of Ryeqo (relugolix, estradiol, norethisterone) (July 2022) and Visanne (dienogest) (December 2024) to the PBS expands accessible hormonal therapy options for endometriosis.29
Case scenario continuedYou reassure Alicia that severe period pain is not something she has to accept and suggest tracking her symptoms with a menstrual diary and consulting a women’s health GP. You also provide advice on safe NSAID use and non-pharmacological strategies. Alicia returns 2 months later, now diagnosed with endometriosis and receiving hormonal therapy and pelvic physiotherapy. She continues to experience chronic pelvic pain and questions her medicines, so you organise a Home Medicines Review, identifying potential naproxen overuse and interactions with her sertraline, prompting treatment adjustments. You also recommend a local endometriosis support group, which Alicia joins, and she has since referred two friends with similar symptoms. Through ongoing support, she feels more empowered to manage her condition. |
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[post_content] => New Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) recommendations could significantly change who can access funded COVID-19 and RSV vaccines.
At its December 2025 meeting, PBAC considered applications for funding COVID-19 vaccines and RSV vaccines on the National Immunisation Program (NIP). While both recommendations were positive, how would they apply in practice?
Smaller cohort recommended for COVID-19 vaccine eligibility
PBAC recommended significantly tighter eligibility criteria for COVID-19 vaccines going forward.
The National COVID-19 Vaccination Program – including the community pharmacy program is scheduled to end on 30 June 2026. While no announcements have yet been made, the PBAC outcomes signal COVID-19 vaccination will be incorporated into the NIP. PBAC recommendation is an important step to enable this NIP listing.
PBAC considered a proposal to fund Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines in a smaller population cohort. The proposal has been supported by PBAC, recommending NIP funding for four cohorts of adults as requested by Pfizer, the product sponsor.
Who would be eligible for funded COVID-19 vaccination?
For current and future Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccines, PBAC’s recommendation supports NIP funding in specific age and risk groups only.
Under this framework, NIP-funded doses would only be available for patients who are:
There’s no clear timeframe. PBAC recommendations for vaccines require price negotiation, government approval, procurement and regulatory listing to become funded on the NIP.
Given the expiry of COVID-19 immunisation program funding, 1 July 2026 could be a potential implementation date for the COVID-19 NIP funding. Current COVID-19 vaccine program eligibility is based on ATAGI advice, so changes could happen at any time ATAGI chooses to provide updated advice.
And as for patients asking when the RSV vaccine may be funded on the NIP? They probably could be encouraged to keep their eye on the TV news for any future announcements!
Upskill in vaccination administration and legislation by visiting the PSA Vaccination (immunisation) Education Hub. [post_title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-04 15:42:54 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-04 04:42:54 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31280 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [title] => PBAC recommends new NIP adult vaccine listings [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/pbac-recommends-new-nip-adult-vaccine-listings/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31282 [authorType] => )td_module_mega_menu Object
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[post_content] => Genevieve Adamo MPS did not set out to work in poisons information. After beginning her career in community pharmacy as an assistant pharmacist and progressing into management, Ms Adamo joined the New South Wales Poisons Information Centre in 2004.
‘I sort of fell into poisons,’ she said. ‘After having a few children, I had some time off and wanted to do something where I was learning again.’
Each call is different, providing a continuous learning opportunity, said Ms Adamo, who took on a role with the National Poisons Register in 2023.
‘You don’t know what you’re going to get at the end of the phone when you pick it up,’ she added.
Because so many of the calls to the poisons centre related to medicines poisoning, whether overdoses or errors, being a pharmacist is a distinct advantage.
‘We have really extensive knowledge of the drugs, as well as a really good base in physiology and pharmacology,’ Ms Adamo said.
[caption id="attachment_18818" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Genevieve Adamo MPS (Image: Steve Christo Photography)[/caption]
Here, she outlines what’s needed to enter and flourish in the space, as told to delegates at PSA’s Voices of Pharmacy – Passion, Purpose and Possibility webinar, held on 26 November 2025.
Core skills for poisons information practice
Poisons information demands a distinct skill set, combining deep scientific knowledge with the ability to work confidently under pressure. Calls are often urgent, information may be incomplete and decisions must be made quickly.
‘Every call provides a clinical problem that you’ve got to solve. Many of which there’s no clear answer,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘And we can't always look something up in a reference [because] not everything is listed there.’
Because it’s neither ethical nor feasible to conduct controlled trials in poisoning, evidence gaps are common.
‘We can’t go and poison a whole lot of people to create clinical trials to find the answers for poisoning questions. We have to wait until these situations happen and then turn those into research themselves,’ she said. ‘So because of that, we often have to go back to basics, and use those pharmacology principles we learned way back in uni.’
This includes:
‘You’ve got to get all the history, work out what you know, look things up and provide advice all within about 5 minutes.' Genevieve Adamo MPS‘We all have the ability to be involved in research, because we're recruiting patients through our calls,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Our staff also create new guidelines for education and training, supporting both external poisoning prevention initiatives and the ongoing training of new and existing staff.’ Another major function is toxicovigilance – the systematic monitoring of poisoning trends with a focus on prevention and risk reduction. ‘That can involve all sorts of things [including] media and education,’ she said. ‘There’s often a lot of number crunching as well, and then working with regulators to change the laws to restrict access, because we know that one of the best ways to minimise harm and exposures is to restrict access.’ A key scheduling change Ms Adamo and her team were involved in was the changes to paracetamol regulations that were ushered in early last year. ‘We were contracted by the TGA to collect extra information about all the paracetamol calls we got,’ Ms Adamo said. ‘Paracetamol calls are the most common call to the poison centre every year, and all of that information was collated by our Head of Research and our consultant toxicologists – with the report used as the basis for the proposed scheduling changes that occurred.’ Sometimes individual cases can lead to broader system change. ‘I was involved in a case with a mum whose little one got really sick, and it was eventually worked out that it was a chronic choline salicylate toxicity,’ she said. ‘She couldn’t believe she’d been giving this poison to her kid and didn’t realise it was poisonous, because she bought it from [a supermarket] and thought it must be safe.’ In response, Adamo submitted an application to reschedule choline salicylate to Schedule 2. ‘Now it has to have more labelling, and it can only be available in a pharmacy,’ she said. ‘Those are the really interesting and rewarding aspects of poisoning work.’ For pharmacists considering the field, Ms Adamo believes the appeal lies in its tangible public health impact – shaping national safety standards and preventing future harm, particularly among children. ‘You know the work you’re doing actually changes outcomes.’ Read PSA’s Medicine Safety: Child and adolescent care report to understand the key poisoning risks and how pharmacists can help mitigate them. [post_title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [post_excerpt] => Poisons information pharmacists turn individual calls into population-level insights that inform regulatory and scheduling decisions. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2026-02-02 18:25:34 [post_modified_gmt] => 2026-02-02 07:25:34 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/?p=31254 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [title_attribute] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [title] => How pharmacists can prepare for poisons information roles [href] => https://www.australianpharmacist.com.au/how-pharmacists-can-prepare-for-poisons-information-roles/ [module_atts:td_module:private] => Array ( ) [td_review:protected] => Array ( ) [is_review:protected] => [post_thumb_id:protected] => 31258 [authorType] => )
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[post_content] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
What’s beneficial about learning different specialties in pharmacy?
Each specialty offers a unique focus, with the learning from each area building upon the others to create a comprehensive understanding of clinical pharmacy service delivery.
I am currently a clinical pharmacist with Western Sydney Local Health District and a research team member and practice change facilitator at the University of Technology Sydney. But I have worked in many different clinical roles. My experience in the intensive care unit, for example, helped develop my ability to review acutely unwell patients – including those with infections, trauma, respiratory failure and organ failure.
In this setting, I managed a diverse range of critically ill patients with complex medicines regimens – involving supportive therapies such as inotropes and vasopressors, sedation
and antimicrobials.
My practice involved designing individualised treatment plans for patients, particularly those receiving extracorporeal therapies such as renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
This background informed my practice in the emergency department, where sound clinical reasoning was vital to delivering effective advice and interventions in fast-paced, high-
pressure situations.
Can you describe your global research review of pharmacist-prescribed contraception services?
In response to barriers accessing contraception, such as the need for a prescription, pharmacist-prescribed contraception has been widely implemented and one common model of care delivers this service using clinical protocols. The review highlighted that the overall scope of these services includes both the prescribing (initiating) and continuation of various contraceptive methods, such as oral contraceptive pills, vaginal rings, transdermal patches and injections. A key finding was that the scope of practice varies internationally, depending on local authorisation and regulatory frameworks.
It was recognised that while conceptually, the clinical protocol is one part of the intervention, education is another important part of the overall provision of care.
This includes recognition of the importance of both foundational education and additional training for pharmacists.
It was evident that authorising pharmacists to prescribe and continue a range of contraception options ultimately offers the best access for women.
At the same time, pharmacist education and training is an important part of the broader piece in pharmacist prescribing – particularly in the current Australian context, as pharmacist prescribing continues to develop and expand.
Your advice for other early ECPs interested in clinical pharmacy?
Seek out opportunities to broaden your knowledge and skills.
If you’re a pharmacy student or ECP interested in hospital pharmacy, look for courses, mentorship programs and professional development opportunities that align with your goals.
Hospital pharmacy is dynamic, exciting and rewarding – there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we as pharmacists can contribute to.
Ask questions and say yes to challenges that push you to grow. Be curious, be kind and keep learning.
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[post_excerpt] => Victoria Chisari MPS is an early career pharmacist and researcher on the move, working across clinical areas of practice to hone her skills.
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[post_content] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
Medicine safety has long depended on pharmacists making critical decisions with incomplete information. As prescribing becomes increasingly fragmented across face-to-face care, telehealth and digital platforms, those gaps are widening – with serious consequences for patients.
Reforms announced by Minister for Health and Ageing Mark Butler this morning aim to address this issue, eventually leading to a National Medicines Record.
The announcement follows advocacy by Alison Collins after the death of her daughter Erin, who died in 2024 after being prescribed medicines through multiple digital health platforms without a complete view of her medical history.
Erin’s story
Erin was 24 years old and had been taking multiple medicines for her mental health. She had been hospitalised multiple times for problems stemming from medicine misuse and was placed on daily staged supply pickup of her medicines.
The hospital care teams were so concerned they placed multiple warning messages in her My Health Record. However, these warnings were not accessed by telehealth services or local pharmacies prior to her fatal overdose.
Erin’s case highlighted systemic vulnerabilities that pharmacists have warned about for years, particularly as digital prescribing expands faster than the safeguards designed to support safe, coordinated care.
The first step
Initially, the reforms would require all medicines information from online prescribers to be uploaded to My Health Record For pharmacists, this will make a fuller picture of all the medicines a patient has been prescribed more visible. This is critical given the increasing number of prescribers an individual may have with the rise of telehealth and condition-specific providers.
Under the proposed changes, medicines prescribed and dispensed through online platforms – including the clinical context for prescribing – would be made available through My Health Record. This is intended to help reduce the risk of medicine errors, adverse drug reactions and inappropriate use by ensuring healthcare professionals have access to more complete and timely information.
The path to a National Medicines Record
The reforms also commit the Government to designing and developing a National Medicines Record using existing digital health infrastructure, including electronic prescribing, the Active Script List and My Health Record.
While details are still emerging, the proposal has the potential to address a core challenge for pharmacists: how to identify and resolve medicines-related risks without a reliable, up-to-date picture of a patient’s full medicines history.
Welcoming the announcement, PSA National President Professor Mark Naunton MPS noted it aligns with the profession's long standing advocacy.
'Pharmacists have consistently sought better-connected digital health systems to improve patient safety with medicines. It’s something PSA has been advocating for over many years, including through our flagship medicine safety report series,” Prof. Naunton said.
'Access to a more complete and reliable medicines record has the potential to significantly improve patient safety and strengthen clinical decision-making.'
'The announcement is fully aligned with PSA’s ongoing advocacy to improve medicines safety systems and ensure pharmacists are supported as medicines experts across all settings of care,' he continued.
'PSA will engage in the consultation for these proposals and continue to work with the Government to support system improvements that make medicine use in Australia safer.'
A consultation period is now underway to guide the inclusion of medicines information from all online prescribers by default, with the first phase expected to be completed by December 2026. The Government has also flagged ongoing enhancements to the 1800MEDICARE app to support medicines management.
[post_title] => What a National Medicines Record might mean for patient safety and pharmacy practice
[post_excerpt] => Australia's Minister for Health has announced a National Medicines Record. What is it, and what will it achieve?
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Australian Pharmacist is the official journal for Pharmaceutical Society of Australia Ltd.
