6 January 2014

Applications are now open for the Asia-Pacific Scholarship for a passionate individual working in quality use of medicines in the Asia Pacific region (outside of Australia) to attend the eighth biennial National Medicines Symposium (NMS), Australia’s preeminent quality use of medicines forum.

Hosted by NPS MedicineWise every two years, the theme for the 2014 symposium is Medicines in health: shaping our future.

The scholarship winner will receive complementary registration to the NMS 2014 event in Brisbane, Australia from 21–23 May 2014. The scholarship prize also includes up to $5000 (AUD) to cover travel, accommodation and expenses.

The winner will provide a 10-minute oral presentation of their work as part of a concurrent session at NMS 2014.

NPS MedicineWise executive manager and chair of the NMS 2014 Scientific Programming Committee, Ms Karen Kaye, says the scholarship represents information sharing across the Asia-Pacific region.

“The scholarship recipient will present an aspect of the quality use of medicines work they are doing within their own cultural context, which delegates will be able to learn from,” says Ms Kaye.

“In turn, the scholarship winner will have the opportunity to take information back from the symposium and implement their learnings in their own local work.

“We’ve had enormous interest in the scholarship in past years and we anticipate a similarly high standard of applications this year, especially given that this is such a wonderful opportunity for the winner to have an international platform for their work.”

The winner of the NMS 2012 Asia-Pacific scholarship, Dr Li Yang from the School of Public Health at Peking University, presented her research into the impact of the free medicines policy in rural Beijing for adults with cardiovascular diseases.

The program for NMS 2014 will centre on sustainability, ethics and decision making, and exploring how data and evidence translates into action.

Scholarship applications close on 19 February 2014 and the winner will be announced on 5 March 2014.

For more information and to apply for the Asia-Pacific Quality Use of Medicines Scholarship for NMS 2014,
visit www.nps.org.au/nms

ENDS

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