SHPA welcomes medicines-focused MRFF grants across transitions of care, aged care and pharmacogenomics
Members of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) are a driving force behind many newly announced Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) projects, following Federal Health Minister Mark Butler’s highly-anticipated $382 million announcement yesterday across nearly 200 projects, including ten funded under the 2022 Quality, Safety and Effectiveness of Medicine Use and Medicine Intervention by Pharmacists grant opportunity.
Chief Executive Kristin Michaels says SHPA welcomes the announcement on behalf of members who see the impacts of Australia’s 250,000 preventable medication-related hospital admissions each year.
‘It is great to see that the ten MRFF projects for pharmacists focus on transitions of care, aged care and pharmacogenomics, crucial areas of care and home to many of our specialist pharmacist members.
‘Preventable medication-related hospital admissions cost the health system $1.4 billion annually, with another 400,000 medication-related emergency department admissions each year, and our hospital pharmacist members have the specialty skills and experience to bring these numbers down through innovations at key care touchpoints.
‘SHPA is proud to be involved in a number of these projects, and has lent organisational support to even more, as supporting and addressing Medicines Safety and Quality Use of Medicines – Australia’s Tenth National Health Priority Area – is the bread and butter of hospital, specialty and credentialled pharmacists.’
Ms Michaels highlighted the Timely post-discharge medication reviews to Improve Continuity – the Transitions Of Care stewardship (TIC TOC) study in rural and regional Australia as an example of SHPA’s leaders scaling up innovation for broader patient benefit.
‘We are very pleased to see the TIC TOC project funded, led by Dr Jonathan Penm who is co-Chair of SHPA’s Research Specialty Practice stream which convenes hundreds of pharmacists in research as well as Katie Phillips, Chair of SHPA’s Transitions of Care and Primary Care Specialty Practice Stream.
‘The study will build on the Virtual Clinical Pharmacy Service (VCPS), which members nationally honoured as the SHPA Hospital Team Innovation of the Year in 2021, an exciting innovation in telehealth and virtual health bridging gaps in specialist hospital pharmacist access for people in regional Western NSW. The funding of the TIC TOC study also supports Dr Manya Angley and her peers’ calls for more funding and research into Transitions of Care Stewardship (ToCS) Pharmacist.
‘The TIC TOC study will employ a Transitions of Care Stewardship (ToCS) Pharmacist to implement the SHPA’s Hospital Initiated Medication Review protocols. We are excited to see our expert members’ work from SHPA’s Transitions of Care and Primary Care Leadership Committee provide the evidence base for this important proposal to evaluate post-discharge medication reviews for rural and regional patients, in order to reduce hospital re-admission risk.’
‘We also congratulate Dr Penm’s team on receiving MRFF grant funding to investigate opioid tapering in patients prior to hip and knee arthroplasty to reduce opioid medication-related harm. SHPA will continue to shape the national conversation on opioid medicines use since our landmark Reducing Opioid-related Harm report (2018) provided a framework for reform to uphold medication safety.
Ahead of the On-site Aged Care Pharmacist program set to begin in July 2023, half of the MRFF grants for pharmacists were announced for the aged care sector.
Ms Michaels says SHPA is positioned to deepen involvement in this important, emerging pharmacist setting.
‘Driven by the expertise of our specialised members, SHPA provides unique support for pharmacists working in the aged care sector, through the Standard of practice in geriatric medicine for pharmacy services, our Geriatric Medicine Specialty Practice stream which has just under 1,000 pharmacists and our Geriatric Medicine Advanced Training Residency to develop the aged care pharmacist workforce.
‘Further, we are very pleased to see two MRFF grants in pharmacogenomics in cancer care received funding, which delivers on recommendations on pharmacogenomics research in SHPA’s Pharmacy Forecast Australia 2022.
‘We invite the Australian pharmacists and researchers to share their searching findings with the pharmacist profession via the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research (JPPR), SHPA’s flagship journal and the only peer-reviewed scientific pharmacy research journal by an Australian pharmacy organisation.’
Image courtesy of AAP