Pharmacy Daily | Australia, be medicinewise

AUSTRALIANS are set to become more medicine savvy and to take more responsibility for their health, with the launch of the NPS’ new 2011 Medicinewise campaign. The first major event since its rebranding in July this year, the long-term Medicinewise campaign will kick-off on 30 January 2011 with the aim of enabling Aussies to apply ‘quality use of medicines and medical tests in their daily lives’. “Each year Australians spend more than $11 billion on prescription, non-prescription and alternative medicines, but health literacy studies indicate people often don’t understand why they’re taking a medicine,” a NPS statement said. The campaign will centre around advertisements and editorial (both published and broadcast) across all major television, radio, social media and print channels, in order to engage and interact directly with Australian consumers. The first stage of the campaign, according to the NPS, “establishes what it means to be medicinewise” and covers ‘Knowing what is a medicine’, ‘Finding the active ingredient’, and ‘Asking the right questions’. “The campaign theme ‘why?’ acts as an umbrella and will carry through our future programs with specific messaging about common medicines use issues,” the NPS said. In addition, the NPS will also revamp its website which will reflect a stronger consumer focus and will include a new home page, as well as new useful information, tools, tips and applications sections. “We know that attitudes towards medicines are a significant hurdle to achieving the best health outcomes, and our challenge is getting people to pay as much attention to what’s in their medicines as they do with their food,” said NPS clinical adviser, Danielle Stowasser. See www.nps.org.au.

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