In this Issue September 2005

• Home (general NAC information such as contact details, feedback, newsletter and so on)

• About the NAC (achievements, administration, members, sponsors),

• Strategy (information underpinning NAC activity),

• Managing Asthma (resources to assist health professionals, people with asthma and their carers to better manage asthma), 

• Research (base information for asthma management guidelines and activity), and

• Emergency (information for immediate asthma management).

The resources available in the Managing Asthma area are further organised into

• Asthma Management Handbook,

• Spirometry Resources,

• Other Resources (including Asthma 3+ Visit Plan, written Asthma Action Plans, Asthma Adherence, Combination Therapy etc)

• Information Papers (Asthma Information Brochures and Papers, Vaccine Update for people with asthma, COPD, heart disease or diabetes etc),

• Special Topics (Asthma Facts and Information Sheets etc ),and

• Professional Development (Audiovisual, CPD and patient resources etc).

Many of our visitors have bookmarked a number of favourite pages from the website including top pages such as:

• Asthma Management Handbook 2002

• Spirometry Handbook

• Written Asthma Action Plans

• Asthma the basic facts

• Asthma Information Papers and Brochures

• First Aid for Asthma

• Acute asthma in adults - Assessment

For our top accessed pages, we will provide automatic redirect initially and request that you update your bookmarks as soon as possible. The popular Asthma Information Papers and Brochures section of the website will remain unchanged.

As always, the NAC appreciates any feedback you may have to share about our activities and the website. Please refer to the Home Page for further updates and the announcement of the launch of the NAC 2005 website.

Feedback

Guiding principles to achieve continuity in medication management

People moving between different health care settings and health care providers should benefit from the implementation of the Guiding principles to achieve continuity in medication management released in July 2005. 

These guiding principles have been developed by the Australian Pharmaceutical Advisory Council to provide assistance so that people can move safely and effectively among multiple health care providers and settings using a systems approach.

Evidence from research into medication safety has shown that significant patient harm and sub-optimal use of medicines frequently occur from the discontinuity when people move health settings.

Positive results from a systems approach include fewer problems related to medicines, fewer visits to health care professionals, improvements in functional health status, and a trend to reduced readmission rates.