The New South Wales Therapeutic Advisory Group Inc. (NSW TAG) is an independent, not-for-profit member-based organisation, comprised of clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists, nurses and clinicians committed to advancing quality use of medicines (QUM) in NSW public hospitals and the wider community.
We seek to facilitate processes that ensure consumers of health care receive the most appropriate medicines in the most appropriate manner whilst ensuring that the limited resources of the health care budget devoted to medicines use are used according to sound economic principles.
30/6/2026: Click here for NSW TAG’s Terms of Reference
13/10/21: Click here for correspondence about NSW TAG’s future beyond 2021
Click here to download a report of NSW TAGs activity for NSW Health 2018-2021
Click here to download a summary infographic of NSW TAGs role and functions
Our goal is:
- To advance the equitable, safe, cost-effective and quality use of medicines, with the objective of realising the best possible health outcomes for all Australians.
Our objectives are:
- To improve medicines management and use within the framework of the National Medicines Policy as it applies to clinical practice in NSW public hospitals and at transitions of care within the public sector and wider community.
- To provide expert, consensus-based and focused collaboration with new and existing strategic partners across NSW and where applicable, Australia, for the purpose of maximising influence on practice to ensure a quality use of medicines approach is considered in both policy and practice.
NSW TAG has applied the following strategies to achieve these objectives:
- Facilitating and supporting members, through an effective communication and information sharing network/community of practice, to ensure a strategically high-level cohesive approach to therapeutic issues of local, jurisdictional and national importance
- Facilitating processes that ensure consumers of health care in NSW receive the most appropriate medicines in the most appropriate manner whilst ensuring that the limited resources of the health care budget devoted to medicines use are used according to sound economic principles
- Enhancing decision-making of Medicine and Therapeutics Committees to facilitate equity, increase transparency and to promote peer review/support
- Supporting the assessment of the impact of new medicines on quality of patient care in the hospital system
- Disseminating information to stakeholders and educate identified target groups
- Partnering with quality use of medicines (QUM) stakeholders on relevant QUM projects
- Supporting development of position statements and evidence-based guidelines for the rational use of specific drugs and drug groups
- Supporting collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative drug usage data
- Conducting and facilitating research pertinent to the quality use of medicines
In the spirit of reconciliation the NSW Therapeutic Advisory Group acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.