Andrew Matthews, The Pharmacy Guild of Australia
 The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (The Guild) was originally established in 1928 as an employer organisation registered under the Federal Industrial Relations Act. Eighty years on, the Guild has expanded to become so much more, whilst still supporting community pharmacy and its owner members.
Community pharmacists are the custodians of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). The PBS is internationally recognised as the best system in the world for delivering medicines to the public in a convenient, affordable and equitable manner via the community pharmacy network - Australia’s most accessible primary healthcare service. The PBS in pharmacy works through an Agreement that The Guild negotiates with Government every five years.
Within this Fourth Agreement is an allocation of funds for a Research and Development (R&D) Program, managed by The Guild. This Government support is a major source of funding for pharmacy practice research in Australia. The aim of the R&D program is to identify research and development priority areas in community pharmacy service provision. The R&D program also funds projects with the greatest potential to deliver services with positive health outcomes for patients and with economic impacts for the health system.
The four priority areas for community pharmacy research as part of the Fourth Agreement R&D Program are:
- continuity of care
- chronic disease management
- primary care services
- workforce development and capacity building.
All programs must encompass the following themes as part of the research:
- quality use of medicines (QUM)
- collaboration
- consumer focus
- application.
The Program is facilitating pharmacy innovation through current projects such as:
- Consumer Medicines Information (CMI) effectiveness
- the role of community pharmacy in the post-hospital management of patients initiated on warfarin
- improving medication compliance
- increasing community pharmacy involvement in the prevention of cardiovascular disease.
For more information on pharmacy research projects, see the ROAR website <www.phcris.org.au/roar/projects.php>
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