Australian Prescriber: celebrating 50 years of growth and change

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream – Khalil Gibran¹

This year marks a momentous milestone in the history of Australian Prescriber, as we celebrate its 50-year anniversary.

While there has been much growth and change during this time, our purpose – to help health professionals make informed choices when prescribing – remains the same. We aim to provide independent, reliable and accessible information on the quality use of medicines to support clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes.

First published by the Department of Health in 1975 under the editorship of Robert Hodge (1975–1979), Australian Prescriber has been published by Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd since 2023, following the closure of the previous publisher NPS MedicineWise in 2022, and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care.

An important figure in Australian Prescriber’s history was John Dowden, who served as Editor-in-Chief for 32 years (1990–2022),^2,3 succeeding John McEwen (1988–1989) and Rod Hall (1980–1988). John Dowden oversaw many milestones during his tenure, including the acceptance of Australian Prescriber into PubMed Central in 2016, the transition from print to digital publishing in the same year, and the launch of the Australian Prescriber Podcast in 2017.⁴

The move to Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd, a non-profit organisation that also publishes the Therapeutic Guidelines, a point-of-care clinical decision support database, was the start of a new chapter for Australian Prescriber. Both are independent and well respected in the healthcare community, and share similar values that support Australian health professionals to make informed prescribing decisions.⁵ The journal is published every 2 months online, and podcasts are published fortnightly. Both the journal and podcast are free to access.

The transition has been an opportunity for continued growth and quality, with collaboration across publications and with subject matter experts. The multidisciplinary Editorial Advisory Committee has been expanded, with Committee members being representatives of the professional societies and colleges of the major subscriber groups to ensure that content aligns with readers’ needs. Each year, the Committee also invites a clinical pharmacology advanced trainee to participate in meetings and other activities as part of their training. The Stakeholder Network supports the work of the Editorial Advisory Committee by providing a link between the journal and the healthcare community.

It is wonderful to see the positive impact of the continuous work that is done to achieve our purpose of helping health professionals make informed decisions when prescribing. In the past 10 years, email subscribers have increased from 22,000 to over 100,000, with increasing numbers of specialist, GP, nurse and other health professional subscribers. A readership survey conducted in early 2024 found that over 97% of respondents were satisfied or extremely satisfied with Australian Prescriber content, and 96% of respondents were likely or extremely likely to recommend Australian Prescriber to a friend or colleague.

Over its 50-year history, Australian Prescriber has greatly benefitted from the altruism, encouragement and effort of our many authors, peer reviewers and readers, who have been pivotal in helping us achieve our purpose. The Australian Prescriber team would like to thank you for your ongoing support in reaffirming the values on which Australian Prescriber was based as we continue to grow and change.

Conflicts of interest: none declared

 

References

1. Gibran K. The Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf; 1923.
2. Dowden JS. Australian Prescriber - the first 30 years. Aust Prescr 2005;28:120-2.
3. Dowden J. Forty and forward? Aust Prescr 2015;38:146-7.
4. Valediction: John Dowden. Aust Prescr 2023;46:90.
5. Claase LA. Australian Prescriber: a new chapter. Aust Prescr 2023;46:2.