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Background: Scarcity of prospective medication non-adherence cost measurements for the Australian population with no directly measured estimates makes determining the burden medication non-adherence places on the Australian health care system difficult. This study aims to indirectly estimate the national cost of medication non-adherence in Australia comparing the cost prior to and following a community pharmacy-led intervention. Methods: Retrospective observational study. A de-identified database of dispensing data from 20,335 patients (n=11,257 on rosuvastatin, n=6,797 on irbesartan and n=2,281 on desvenlafaxine) was analyzed and average adherence rate determined through calculation of PDC. Included patients received a pharmacist-led medication adherence intervention and had twelve months dispensing records; six months before and six months after the intervention. The national cost estimate of medication non-adherence in hypertension, dyslipidemia and depression pre- and post-intervention was determined through utilization of disease prevalence and comorbidity, non-adherence rates and per patient disease-specific adherence-related costs. Results: The total national cost of medication non-adherence across three prevalent conditions, hypertension, dyslipidemia and depression was $10.4 billion equating to $517 per adult. Following enrollment in the pharmacist-led intervention medication non-adherence costs per adult decreased $95 saving the Australian health care system and patients $1.9 billion annually. Conclusion: In the absence of a directly measured national cost of medication non-adherence, this estimate demonstrates that pharmacists are ideally placed to improve patient adherence and reduce financial burden placed on the health care system due to non-adherence. Funding of medication adherence programs should be considered by policy and decision makers to ease the current burden and improve patient health outcomes moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morris, B.D., Foulsham, E., Laine, R., Wiecek, D. and Hanslow, D., 2016. Evaluation of run-up characteristics on the NSW coast. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1187-1191. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Communities and infrastructure along the coast of New South Wales, Australia, are vulnerable to coastal inundation from the combined impacts of ocean tides, storm surge, wave setup, wave run-up and wave overtopping. The focus of the current work is to examine the potential for coastal inundation on beaches and dunes on the open coast of NSW through the evaluation of wave run-up. To achieve this we combine information on tides, surge and wave runup to examine dune overtopping potential. The study utilises data from the NSW wave and ocean tide gauge network and an extensive set of beach profile and grainsize data covering over 200 beaches as well as available photogrammetry and LiDAR data. Ocean still water level and design nearshore wave conditions are used together with beach slope data to calculate wave run-up height. Choice of appropriate wave run-up formulation is evaluated through the use of available long term datasets from Narrabeen and Moruya. Geographical variability in relevant beach/dune characteristics including beach slope and dune height are examined using survey (RTK-GPS), photogrammetry and LiDAR data. Overtopping potential for various design events (e.g. 5y, 20y, 100y storms) is examined through the overlay of predicted run-up heights on high resolution digital elevation models at each pilot study site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]