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Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research
Medicine use and safety
Medicines can do much good – but they can also do much harm. Safety and effectiveness are fundamentally important characteristics for any medicine applied to the prevention and treatment of disease in humans. The safety of a medicine in clinical practice is in part related to the intrinsic toxicity profile of the molecule itself. However, even a medicine of relatively low intrinsic toxicity can lead to adverse effects if it is used inappropriately (e.g. the dose used is too high, poor choice of medicine for the condition to be treated or for the type of patient).
Inadequate systems for the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines, or a breakdown in the application of the systems, can lead to medication errors or incidents that can have adverse outcomes for patients (e.g. wrong drug prescribed, dispensed or administered). In addition, the prescribing of an appropriate medicine in an appropriate dosage regimen can lead to lack of effectiveness, or toxicity, if the patient does not adhere to the directions for the correct use of the medicine.
The issue of medicine use and safety in people in the community and healthcare institutions in Australia has, quite rightly, received much attention in recent times. This attention has come from Commonwealth and State governments and health departments, peak bodies such as the NHMRC, the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care, the Australian Patient Safety Foundation and the Consumers’ Health Forum. The faculty has active research programs in the area of medicine use and safety with the projects being supported by a range of research grants. The projects range across both community and hospital settings, and employ a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
This research is conducted within the Centre for Medication Safety, which is supported by Pharmaceutical Defence Limited.
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