Established in 2008, Medwise is a DHB-funded service that provides clinical pharmacy support to hospitals, GP clinics and community pharmacists in the Bay of Plenty.

Medicines are the most common healthcare intervention.

Ensuring the most appropriate medicine is chosen using best evidence and making sure medicines are used in the right way means that we can get the best outcomes from treatment.

​Ensuring that medicines use is as safe as possible also means that we get the best outcomes from treatment. Safe use of medication reduces avoidable harm that may occur due to unwanted effects, interactions and medication errors (half of all medication errors occur at the interface between primary and secondary care).

Medwise is contracted to the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation (WBoPPHO) to fund clinical pharmacist services, with a focus on reducing medicines-related harm and optimising medicines-related outcomes.

Clinical pharmacy is a speciality within the pharmacy profession. Specialisation requires specific and advanced levels of education, skills and training in addition to the undergraduate university pharmacy degree.

The practice of clinical pharmacy continues to evolve and change, with an expanding range of innovative roles in New Zealand. While clinical pharmacy is long established in hospitals, clinical pharmacy in primary care is a more recent practice. Clinical Advisory pharmacists work within healthcare teams to improve equity and the quality of patient care through patient-facing and quality improvement roles.

Pharmacist Prescribers are specialist clinical pharmacists with extra training and qualifications to prescribe medications as part of the healthcare team.

Medwise clinical pharmacists are medication specialists.

The 2020 final report of the Health and Disability System Review Panel includes clinical pharmacist-led medicines optimisation among essential primary and community services that should be commissioned locally. Medwise was chosen as an example of medicines optimisation services in this review.

See more for Medwise awards, and pharmacist achievements.