Thursday Three - 27 04 2023

  • News from International Longevity Centre (ILC) Aus

  • AAG article on the importance of a partnership approach to pharmacy services

  • Update from the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce

News from International Longevity Centre-Aus

Did you know that ILC-Aus is the international arm of AAG? AAG is the lead and host organisation, with administrative responsibilities for ILC-Aus.

Reporting to the AAG Board, the current President of ILC-Aus is Professor Julie Byles, who is also the current co-president of ILC Global Alliance. AAG’s CEO, Renu Borst, also has responsibilities as the Executive officer of ILC-Aus. Our membership of the global alliance links us with gerontologists, geriatricians, academics and advocates in 15 other countries, and to activities relating to many international bodies.

Following a workshop in March 2023, ILC-Aus has refined its purpose statement to position itself more strongly in local and global contexts. This updated statement clearly demonstrates how ILC-Aus aims to engage Australian researchers in global activities, by:

  • Providing advice based on our experience in Australia to the international community.
  • Working together to secure funding for national and international research and policy analysis, through national and international grant schemes and with AAG partnership.
  • Assisting Australian researchers and service providers both to promote their work to an international audience and to interpret evidence from overseas to our local contexts.
  • Building capacity in Australian researchers and policymakers by increasing engagement between Australia and the rest of the world and fostering an environment that supports international collaboration.
  • Providing a platform to connect AAG members with international organisations with and through the ILC Global Alliance.

We currently have 10 corporate members of ILC-Aus, represented by key individuals, and subject to a small fee of $500 per annum. We will be enhancing our membership over the coming year. Please contact us if you would like your organisation to join.

Read more about AAG’s international activities on our website.

The importance of a partnership approach to pharmacy services

AAG has been engaging with members about how to best manage the integration of pharmacists into residential aged care. As part of this work, we recently collaborated with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia to write an article on a partnership approach to pharmacy services. This article was published in Australian Ageing Agenda’s March-April 2023 feature on medication management.

Relating mainly to residential aged care, key messages include:

  • The importance of a partnership approach to appropriate, safe and effective medication administration.
  • The value of pharmacists' knowledge and expertise to aged care providers.
  • The critical need to recruit and retain pharmacists to residential aged care.

You can read the article via our resource library.

Australian Ageing Agenda (AAA) is a proud partner of AAG Australian Ageing Agenda (AAA) is a proud partner of AAG.

Update from the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce

AAG is proud to be a member of the National Clinical Evidence Taskforce. As the Taskforce celebrates their three-year anniversary delivering ‘living guidelines’ to Australian clinicians for the care of people with COVID-19, they reflect on some of their key milestones and achievements. We’re pleased to share this snapshot with our members.

The Taskforce published its first set of recommendations in April 2020, with only three expert panels, a Guidelines Leadership Group (GLG) and National Steering Committee. It has since grown to include 15 expert panels and an expanded clinical scope which includes children, adolescents, adults, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and older people.

As their clinical scope expanded, so did the demand for more of Australia’s medical colleges and peak health organisations to contribute to the recommendation process. The multi-disciplinary collaboration between 35 member organisations is an invaluable and unprecedented resource to provide national evidence-based treatment guidelines for urgent and emerging diseases.

The ’living guidelines’ concept requires rapid identification, evaluation, and synthesis of evidence on a weekly basis before presenting to the Taskforce’s expert panels, GLG and Steering Committee. Since the first publication of COVID-19 recommendations on 4 April 2020, the Taskforce has updated their clinical guideline over 120 times with more than 200 recommendations. The Taskforce has also created 23 clinical flowcharts to reflect the recommendations in their clinical guideline to help clinicians interpret this guidance in clinical scenarios.

The Taskforce has built a unique relationship between clinician and consumer to develop guidance which prioritises both the management and care for people with mild, moderate, severe and critical COVID-19, and the care for people with long COVID-19.

Since their launch, the Taskforce’s website and COVID-19 guideline has over 650,000 unique users, 1.5 million page views, 125,000 international users and 145,000 flowchart users. You can view more of the Taskforce’s journey at evidenceinaction.org.

The Taskforce thanks their member organisations and volunteers for their significant contributions over their three years and passes on their appreciation for every clinician and consumer who has supported their work.