• Many hospitals in Australia offer a Medicines Information service, usually for the purposes of supporting hospital staff and patients. Some MI services offer assistance to external health professionals and consumers. 

    Pharmaceutical companies usually provide a service for enquiries about their products, as this helps them to fulfill their legal pharmacovigilance and reporting obligations, however the scope of enquiries that they are able to accept may be limited. 

    A contact list of MI services in Australia is available on the SHPA website.

    • The Australian Medicines Information Procedure Manual provides information about the resources and skills required to establish, operate and maintain an MI service. Published by the Society of Hospital Pharmacists and written by members with expertise in the specialty practice of medicines information, it is an essential resource for pharmacists wishing to work in the area of medicines information.

      Areas covered include:

      • guidelines for establishing an MI service
      • responsibilities and services offered
      • guidance for training including advanced practice and competencies
      • guidelines for practice
      • bibliographic databases
      • quality assurance and service improvement.

      The procedure manual offers further information on subjects introduced in this online training course including:

      • information resources required
      • clinical trials and critical evaluation
      • ethical and legal issues.

      Click here to download the procedure manual.

      History of Medicines InformationOther Medicines Information resources