Medicines Advice Initiative Australia (MAIA) is a consortium dedicated to improving the use of medicines and related health services in Australia. MAIA develops educational interventions to target a specific health care problem. These resources and activities have been developed for a range of audiences, including hospitals and health service organisations, General Practitioners, pharmacists and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) through NACCHO.
CATAG develops medicine stewardship toolkits for Medicines and Therapeutics Committees, including a practice tool and teaching tool.
The practice tools enable the sharing of resources for implementation in medicines stewardship programs at a local level to promote safe and appropriate prescribing. These resources support hospital and health services to put practice and policy into place to support transitions of care.
The teaching tools are for use by clinical educators in teaching sessions for medical officers, nurses, pharmacists, and students. It provides a clinical examples for the different MAIA topics.
To support the implementation of these toolkits, two complementary tools have been developed.
One tool provides guidance for system-level application—supporting clinical governance committees, Medicines and Therapeutics Committees (MTCs), medicines safety committees, and department heads.
The other tool is designed to assist clinicians to include its integration into health professional development programs.
This consortium is led by the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre at the University of South Australia.