Research into role of pharmacy

Professor Colin Chapman, Professor Michael Dooley and Kevin McNamara will head the projects, which will study varied roles for community pharmacists.

In his project, Prof Chapman will examine the nature, extent and impact of triage provided by community pharmacies.

"Every community pharmacy in Australia provides primary health care, including referral to other health care practitioners, but this core activity has never been adequately assessed.

"This will now be done in a project centred on Victoria from the perspectives of consumers, pharmacists and the other providers of health care," Prof Chapman said.

Prof Dooley's project, "The integration of complementary medicines in community pharmacy practice", aims to investigate the information needs of community pharmacy customers in regards to complementary and alternative medicines (CAMs), and the ability of community pharmacists to fulfil these needs.

"The use of CAMs in Australia is widespread and community pharmacy is one of the main suppliers, with approximately 40 per cent of the total annual spend of over $1 billion.

"Pharmacists therefore have a major opportunity and burden of responsibility to ensure that the principles of Quality Use of Medicines are applied to this area of therapeutics," Prof Dooley said.

Mr McNamara's project, "Pharmacist assessment of adherence, risk and treatment in cardiovascular disease trial", builds on his previous research in the area.

"This is a great opportunity for community pharmacists to develop a comprehensive role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

"Developing a broad-based intervention (incorporating both medication and lifestyle issues) is made much easier thanks to the in-house expertise of co-investigators Dr Johnson George and Greg Duncan, in areas such as treatment adherence and health promotion.

"This project also strengthens important links with several collaborating organisations in general practice, public health and pharmacy," he said.