The Wire

Every year more than one hundred thousand people are admitted to hospitals with medication-related problems and for people over the age of 70, about one in three is to the Emergency ward. The Veterans’ MATES program – Medicines Advice and Therapeutic Education Services – is a partnership between the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Centre at the University of South Australia, and is working to reduce the occurrence of medication-related problems among war veterans. Professor Andrew Gilbert told Andrea Johansen how the program works.