The Integrating Pharmacists within Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to Improve Chronic Disease Management (IPAC) study is a collaborative partnership between James Cook University, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia and the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO).

This project has explored if including a pharmacist as part of the team within Aboriginal community controlled health services (ACCHSs) leads to:

• improvements in the quality of the care received
• improvements in prescribing by doctors
• if patients are more likely to take their medicines
• if indicators of health are improving over time

Practice pharmacists have:

• provided relevant healthcare activities to patients.
• provided education and training to staff
• improved relations with community pharmacies to overcome barriers that patients may face in accessing medicines
• assisted in managing medications at transitions of care (such as discharge from hospital).

The project ran until 2020 in 22 ACCHO sites in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, James Cook University, NACCHO and its affiliates. It was funded under the Australian Government 6th Community Pharmacy Agreement.

To find out more about the IPAC project, please contact Alice or Fran at IPAC@naccho.org.au