Library guides: Drug information: Professional resources

Guide index

TGA safety recent news

Australian & New Zealand drug information

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care: Medication Safety Information in these pages can help health service organisations and clinicians identify and implement strategies to improve medication safety.
Choosing Wisely Australia resources for Health professionals Choosing Wisely is creating a cultural shift towards health professionals and consumers engaging in conversations about what care is truly needed – what is helpful and what is not. The right choice should be based on the best available evidence and discussion between consumers and clinicians. We are here to encourage and support clinicians, consumers and organisations who are committed to embedding Choosing Wisely recommendations and principles into practice.
Interactive Clinical Pharmacology (NZ) Developed at Hitlab NZ and Christchurch Hospital / University of Otago Christchurch, New Zealand, this site is for any student or practitioner requiring Clinical Pharmacology knowledge. A basic understanding of physiology and pharmacology is assumed.
Medicines safety - TGA (Australia) General information about the safety of medicines and how safety is monitored.
Medsafe - Information for Consumers (NZ) Medsafe is the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority. Information that patients should know about medicines and medical devices including updates on staying safe and healthy, with a New Zealand focus.
My Virtual Medical Centre: Drugs database (Australia)
National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre - Fact sheets (Australia) The overall mission of NDARC is to conduct and disseminate high quality research and related activities that increases the effectiveness of treatment and other intervention responses to alcohol and other drug related harm. They have created these fact sheets.
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (UNSW) (Australia) The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre is not primarily an information centre and has a limited ability to provide drug information to the general public. However, due to great demand we have produced a series of fact sheets on a range of drugs and statistical data which may prove useful.
New Zealand Formulary (NZF) (NZ) The NZF is an independent resource providing healthcare professionals with clinically validated medicines information and guidance on best practice, enabling healthcare professionals to select safe and effective medicines for individual patients.
NPS Medicinewise (Australia) Independent, not-for-profit, evidence-based and consumer-centred information about medicines.
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) (Australia) This website contains information on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme including details of the medicines subsidised by the Australian Government as well as information for consumers, carers, health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry. The PBS is part of Australia’s broader National Medicines Policy.
Pharmac – Pharmaceutical Management Agency (NZ) Numerous Resources Including: Clinicians’ Newsletter, Pharmaceutical Schedule, Special Authority Forms.
Professional Medicine Information Search (Australia) Our aim is to support the National Strategy for the Quality Use of Medicines. The goal of the strategy is to make the best possible use of medicines to improve health outcomes for all Australians. We support this goal by providing free access to high quality, up to date information about medicines that are approved for use in Australia.
SafeScript (Australia) SafeScript is a new system providing prescription information to enable the safer supply of high risk medicines.
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) (Australia)

Medication labelling standards (Australia & New Zealand)

Opioids

FPM Opioid Calculator
The Faculty of Pain Medicine, ANZCA has developed a Opioid Calculator app designed to calculate dose equivalence of opioid analgesic medications.

National Opioid Pharmacotherapy Statistics Annual Data (NOPSAD) collection (Australia) The main purpose of the NOPSAD collection is to aggregate standardised jurisdictional data on the number of clients accessing pharmacotherapy for the treatment of opioid dependence, the number of prescribers participating in the delivery of pharmacotherapy treatment, and quantitative information about the prescribing sector, enabling national information on pharmacotherapy to be reported.
Prescribing drugs of dependence in general practice - Part C1: Opioids (Australia)
Safe Opioid Prescribing (US) Resources from the CDC that promote the responsible and effective use of these medications in the treatment of pain.
Safe prescribing and supply of opioid medicines (Australia) The Department of Health and Human Services has worked with NPS MedicineWise to develop a range of resources for health professionals, as well as consumer fact sheets, to promote the safer use of opioid medicines.

Australian & New Zealand policies & standards

Faculty of Pain Medicine: Prof Docs - PM01 (Appendix 2) Opioid Dose Equivalence - Calculation of Oral Morphine Equivalent Daily Dose (oMEDD)
Faculty of Pain Medicine: Prof Docs - PS01 (PM) Statement regarding the use of opioid analgesics in patients with chronic non-cancer pain PS01: Statement regarding the use of opioid analgesics in patients with chronic non-cancer pain
Good medical practice: a code of conduct for doctors in Australia (Australia) Medical Board of Australia Code of Conduct for Australian doctors, which includes participating in systems for surveillance and monitoring of adverse events and ‘near misses’, and reporting such events.
National Drug Strategy 2017-2026 (Australia)
National Medicines Policy (Australia) The National Medicines Policy aims to improve positive health outcomes for all Australians through their access to and wise use of medicines.
Pharmac - News and Resources PHARMAC is the New Zealand government agency that decides which medicines and related products are funded in New Zealand. It works to give New Zealanders access to medicines and related products they need to live healthy lives.
Professional documents and statements (ANZCA)
Therapeutic Goods Administration: Scheduling basics (Australia) Scheduling is a national classification system that controls how medicines and poisons are made available to the public. Medicines and poisons are classified into Schedules according to the level of regulatory control over the availability of the medicine or poison required to protect public health and safety.

International drug information

Electronic Medicines Compendium (eMC) (UK) Contains Information About UK Licensed Medicines.
Formulary (UK) The Formulary is our regular review of pharmacotherapy, or treatment with pharmaceutical drugs. Bookmark this page to keep up to date with the latest developments in drugs and drug treatment, and browse previous instalments of Formulary from the British Journal of Family Medicine archive.
The Internet Drug Index (US) Drugs A-Z, Pill Identifier, Supplements, Symptom Checker, Diseases, Dictionary, and MultiMedia resources.
MedEffect Canada (Canada) MedEffect Canada provides consumers, patients, and health professionals with easy access to information and options to: report an adverse reaction or side effect; obtain new safety information on drugs and other health products; and learn and better understand the importance of reporting side effects.
Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (UK) Includes searchable lists of adverse drug reactions by drug (Drug Analysis Prints (DAPs) / drug analysis profiles (iDAPs)).
Medline Plus (US NLM)
Orange Book: FDA Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations (US)
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (US)

Poisons

Contacts for State/Territory medicines & poisons regulation units (Australia) From the Australian Department of Health.
Health Victoria: Medicines and poisons (Australia)
New Zealand National Poisons Centre (NZ) The main role of the National Poisons Centre NZ is to provide advice to members of the public and health care professionals about acute poisoning situations.
NSW Poisons Information Centre (Australia)
The Poisons Standard (the SUSMP) (Australia)
TOXINZ (NZ) The TOXINZ™ Poisons Information Database is produced by the New Zealand National Poisons Centre at the University of Otago.
Victorian Poisons Information Centre (Australia)

Drugs & addiction

ANZCA: Doctors' health and wellbeing (Australia) ANZCA's dedicated Doctors' health and wellbeing page, which outlines the Doctors' Health and Wellbeing Framework, as well as other resources to support doctors and integrate supportive mechanisms within organisations.
ANZCA: Wellbeing SIG (Australia) The ANZCA webpage of the Wellbeing special interest group, which includes their mission, events and further information about becoming a member.
Department of Health: Drug help (Australia)
Drug Education Network (DEN) - Tasmania (Australia)
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (Australia)
National Institute on Drug Abuse (US) The science of drug abuse and addiction. Contains a section on Opioids.
ANZCA: Wellbeing Library Guide (Australia) ANZCA Library has compiled support resources for the topic of doctor welfare, with articles, books, apps and other resources related to this topic area.

Medicine safety

National Quality Use of Medicines Indicators (Australia) The National Quality Use of Medicines Indicators are process indicators. They do not directly measure outcomes from medicines use. They do, however, focus on areas where the link between process and outcome is clearly established, so they are clinically meaningful to clinicians and their patients. They have been developed with input from doctors, pharmacists, nurses, consumers and managers around Australia.
National QUM Indicators for Australian Hospitals (Australia) Process indicators to measure quality use of medicines (QUM) in Australian Hospitals have now been updated and revised with funding support from the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQHC).
Safety information & education (TGA) (Australia) This section of the TGA website includes links to articles about the general safety of medicines and medical devices, including how the safety of products is assessed and monitored.

Reporting adverse side effects or reactions

Report a problem or side effect: TGA (Australia) Consumers, health and industry professionals can report problems or side-effects through this page. There is an online form, as well as phone or email contact information.
Reporting adverse events: TGA (Australia) Frequently asked questions relating to adverse events and the reporting of same, from the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia.
Guide to Adverse Reaction Reporting - New Zealand (NZ) he Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM) in Dunedin is the national repository for adverse reaction reports. New Zealand health professionals can be proud of their high rate of adverse reaction reporting. These reports help to identify local patterns and contribute to international pharmacovigilance. The reports can also result in safety alerts to prescribers, and national database warnings for individual patients. All health professionals are encouraged to continue reporting adverse reactions to CARM. Please provide as much information as possible. Personal patient details supplied to CARM remain confidential. Reporters of adverse reactions will receive supportive feedback from CARM.