mivision has launched a digital publication to complement distribution of its well established monthly printed ophthalmic journal.
Publisher Todd Tai said the digital publication, which will be available in two formats, enables mivision to expand its reach to members of the eye health profession who are not registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) as health care professionals.
“Australia has very strict regulations when it comes to advertising pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices, which are aimed at protecting the public. Essentially pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices cannot be advertised directly to anyone other than registered healthcare professionals,” Mr Tai said.
Elizabeth de Somer, Chief Executive Officer of Medicines Australia confirmed that “the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and its accompanying regulations prohibit the promotion of prescription medicines to the public”.
Additionally, the advertising of medical devices must be consistent with the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code.
“Supporting these laws is the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct, which commits the Australian pharmaceutical industry to ensuring the information they provide about medicines meets the legal standards, is appropriate to the audience, and that any information that is promotional is only provided to dedicated health care professionals,” Ms de Somer said.
To comply with these regulations, and assist mivision’s advertisers to also be compliant, Mr Tai has been carefully restricting distribution of the printed mivision publication to registered ophthalmologists and optometrists for some years.
However, he said “this has hampered our efforts to reach our primary objective which is to ‘enhance the patient pathway and influence optimum patient outcomes by sharing knowledge and improving communication within the eye care professions’.”
With an aim to pursue its objective, mivision’s team has been at work for the past two years, developing the digital version of mivision in two formats – a clinical version for registered healthcare professionals that replicates the printed journal, and a second version for nonregistered members of the healthcare profession, which contains all of the editorial content without prohibited advertising.
“We’ve also collaborated with Ahpra to integrate its Practitioner Information Exchange (Ahpra-PIE) into our online platform and digital magazine app,” Mr Tai said. “This direct link to Ahpra enables instant and automatic verification of a healthcare professional’s details and Ahpra registration, upon subscribing to mivision and prior to them obtaining online access to our clinical content.”
Mr Tai confirmed that the Ahpra registrations of all subscribers to the printed journal are also checked for validity via Ahpra-PIE.
“In the end, it’s up to advertisers to ensure they are fully compliant with regulations set down by Medicines Australia and the Therapeutic Goods Administration, however we are doing as much as we possibly can to help our clients tackle this complex legislation,” he said.
mivision’s digital publication will be released each month at the same time as its printed journal. The website will continue to be updated with daily news, education, and all articles from the journal. Additionally, e-newsletters will continue to be despatched every week.
To register to receive the digital publication and e-news, visit mivision.com.au/subscriptions.
