Commentary

摘要

Another issue of the Journal rolls around and I find myselfreflecting on how busy the Association has been since mylast report. In the previous Journal I dedicated my reportto the debate on regulation. This debate is ongoing withmany developments that I will report later in this article. The highlights of this period include the induction of ourvery first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) fullmember, the beginning of a very successful seminar series,our attendance at the quality use of medicines forum and aforum of practitioner associations to discuss the regulatoryneeds of the professions. Alongside these events the officehas been extremely busy dealing with health fund auditsand changes to the way health funds recognise providersin our professions and a board sub-committee has beenworking on the planning of the next NHAA internationalconference. To address each of these events in the closestto chronological order seems an appropriate approach. The Quality Use of Medicine Forum was the firstof what is intended to be an annual event hosted bythe Commonwealth Department of Health to discuss strategies to improve delivery of medicines and care tohealth consumers in Australia. This includes the deliveryof complementary medicines. Professor Alan Bensoussanof the National Institute of Complementary Medicines andmyself were the only attendees from the complementaryhealth care sector and I was the only representative fromany of the complementary health care professions. I waspleased to have a place at the table representing such awell trained yet under utilised workforce.