Healthcare Professional
Education Services
More than 70 per cent of Australians now regularly take complementary medicines. As health
professionals, it is critical we are equipped to advise our patients about the safe and effective use of natural medicine as either a stand-alone or adjunct therapy to conventional medicine.
At Blackmores Institute, our role is to keep you up-to-date with the latest scientific evidence and best-practice guidelines on complementary medicine. Whether you’re an experienced practitioner or just beginning your learning, we have a range of education products, services and events designed to meet your needs. You can choose from free weekly research updates, online learning tools, on-site training or major scientific symposia. We also have an advisory service staffed by qualified naturopaths and pharmacists who are available to answer any questions you have on complementary medicines.
To take advantage of our evidence-based knowledge centre, I encourage you to join our community by registering at www.blackmoresinstitute.org. You will immediately access our online CPD-accredited training and learning modules, receive our weekly research updates and we will keep you informed on our upcoming events.
In the meantime, this brochure gives you an overview of some of our services and our education program. If you have any questions or ideas for future events, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly on +61 2 9910 5402.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Meralda Bateman
Blackmores Institute Education Manager
Introducing Blackmores
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Supporting You To
Stay Up-To-Date
On Complementary
Medicines
Blackmores Institute has produced a comprehensive reference guide to provide health professionals with easy access to information about interactions between complementary medicines and pharmaceutical medications. This handy guide is available to all Blackmores Institute members – visit www.blackmoresinstitute.org to join and download your copy today.
Complementary Medicines
Interaction Guide
Weekly Research Updates
New research is continually being published and it can be a challenge to stay across it all. Through our free weekly research updates, we give you a summary of the latest advances in research on complementary medicines. Subscribe at www.blackmoresinstitute.org
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Ask an expert
Healthcare Professional Advisory Service
Blackmores Healthcare Professional Advisory Service is staffed by a team of healthcare professionals qualified in pharmacy and naturopathy. The team is there to answer your questions on evidence-based nutritional and herbal medicine, including interactions between complementary medicines and pharmaceutical medications.
If the team needs more information to answer a specific question, it will call on our highly respected Medical Support Team to ensure you are getting the highest level professional guidance in response to your query.
Call us on 1800 151 493 next time you have a question. Please note, this number is for healthcare professionals only.
Consumer Advisory Service
To support your patients, we also have a consumer advisory service that offers information on natural health and wellbeing, as well as answering specific
The Blackmores Institute team is made up of some of Australia’s best researchers, academics, healthcare professionals and communicators in the field of complementary medicine. We work together to commission, review and translate the latest nutritional and herbal medicine research into practical healthcare professional education solutions. The team is guided by our expert Medical Support Team, who review our
education curriculum to ensure it meets our high standards for evidence-based best practice. Our Education Team then works with our Naturopath State Trainers to deliver the programs and our Advisory Service is always at the other end of the phone for your questions.
We work in partnership with Australia’s best education and research organisations to commission research and develop our education program. These include Griffith University, Monash University, National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Southern Cross University, Swinburne University, University of Adelaide, University of Technology Sydney and University of Sydney.
Guided by Australia’s
leading experts
Medical Support Team
DR LESLEY BRAUN DIRECTOR
Dr Lesley Braun is Director of the Blackmores Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine at the University of Western Sydney. Lesley is a pharmacy graduate from Monash University and a qualified naturopath. Lesley serves on the Australian Therapeutic Goods Advisory Council, the COSA’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine interest group, the Advisory Committee for the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA) and the National Institute for Complementary Medicine (NICM).
DR MICHAEL DODSON MEDICAL DIRECTOR Along with his role as Medical Director for Blackmores Institute, Michael is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the National Institute of Complementary Medicine (NICM). He graduated from medicine at the University of Melbourne and has completed a PhD and masters degrees in public health and health management. He is experienced in the regulation and evaluation of complementary medicines, and has been influential in the development of national policy around complementary medicine regulation.
CHRIS OLIVER RESEARCH DIRECTOR Chris has a strong healthcare background having studied agriculture, nutrition and public health. He has a keen interest in integrative medicine, body composition and ageing, and meta-analysis. Chris’ career has spanned private practice, academia, clinical trials and in industry research and development. Chris’ role at Blackmores Institute is to offer the team deeper insights into complementary medicine research, with a particular expertise on clinical trials and their design and interpretation.
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Blackmores Institute offers a diverse range of education opportunities designed to meet a variety of learning styles and career stages.
Our services and academic programs offer you: • An introduction to complementary medicine • In-depth understanding of the evidence-base for
ingredients and their efficacy in treating specific conditions • Tools to improve patient engagement skills
• Business skills
• CPD-accredited education for health professionals, including pharmacists and general practitioners • Advanced education products and events for the
integrative practitioner
Build your knowledge with our free
short course in integrative medicine
Blackmores Institute is proud to offer a free short course in integrative medicine, in partnership with Griffith University.
This course features 10 online training modules, each of which takes around 45 minutes to complete. The modules focus on topics that you can immediately apply in practice and on completion, a healthcare professional should be able to:
• Describe the mechanism of action, indications and use of a range of evidence-based complementary medicines in key health conditions; and • List key counselling points, including dosing directions, adverse effects,
contraindications and/or interactions for a range of evidence-based complementary medicines used in pharmacy.
New to complementary
medicines?
Introduction to Nutritional
and Herbal Medicine Cancer
Cardiovascular Diseases Central Nervous System Disorders Endocrine Disorders Gastrointestinal Diseases
Pain Respiratory Disorders Women’s Health 1 –
Infertility, PCOD, PMS Menopause, UTI, pregnancyWomen’s Health 2 –
For course and CPD information, visit
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Our Best-Practice Masterclass focuses on integrating your knowledge of complementary medicines into your clinical practice. The intensive course develops your clinical and business skills, including interviewing techniques to ensure you have meaningful conversations that elicit the information you need to provide best-practice recommendations for your patients.
Best-Practice Masterclass
Developing your career
Take the next step in developing
your career as an integrative health
practitioner with our masterclasses
and symposia
Register at www.blackmoresinstitute.org
Scientific Symposia: Applying best-practice
complementary medicine to your patient care
Our scientific symposia are our flagship events. We hold them annually in Australia and throughout Asia Pacific. The scientific programs bring together leading international and local researchers and clinicians who present the latest research and insights in the field of integrative medicine. Importantly, we ensure our symposia always include a practical translation of the science for your professional practice to ensure you are able to apply the information to optimise patient care.
Scientific Seminars
We hold free quarterly scientific seminars with industry experts discussing the latest research and clinical advances. Our events provide an opportunity to network and gain useful knowledge with direct application to clinical practice.
Visit www.blackmoresinstitute.org to see our upcoming schedule of events.
Knowledge development for
the more advanced practitioner
Our scientific seminars are an excellent way to ensure ongoing knowledge development and networking among your industry colleagues, and our online training modules and webinars give you the opportunity to further knowledge at a time convenient to you.
All of the programs cover best-practice guidelines, current scientific research and clinical case studies to ensure you are kept up-to-date with the latest insights and understanding in complementary medicine.
Webinar Series
A series of regular hot-topic webinar events – that can either be joined live or watched at a time of your choosing. Designed to improve complementary medicine knowledge and help you confidently translate evidence into practice.
Topics include:
• Drug, herb and nutrient interactions – Dr Brett McFarlane, Education and Research Manager, Australian College of Pharmacy (ACP)
• ‘Paddock to Plate’; Factors that influence the nutritional and therapeutic value of food – Liza Oates, Naturopath
Online Training
Blackmores Institute CPD-accredited online modules cover specific ingredients or condition/category based healthcare solutions and allow healthcare professionals to access natural medicine education at their own convenience.
Topics include:
• Omega-3s: Evidence Update and Clinical Application • Eye Health: Nutritional
Developments
• Discussing Complementary Medicine with Your Patients • Pregnancy & Breastfeeding:
Meeting Nutritional Needs
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Education individualised
to your team’s needs
Blackmores Australia offers a range of training in complementary medicine for pharmacy assistants. They are often the first point of contact for a new patient and the sessions are designed to build their knowledge and confidence in making recommendations.
BREAKFAST BITES: Our educators will come and train your team,
in-store before work. We can tailor our Breakfast Bite sessions exactly to your requirements.
HUB TRAINING: To minimise travel, we have established suburban hubs
to hold our evening training sessions. These evening sessions cover common issues seen in practice, including exercise and energy, and preconception and fertility.
ONE-DAY INTENSIVES: Our one-day intensive program gives participants
the knowledge and insights they need to make recommendations in the complementary medicines category. The sessions run from 9.30am to 4.30pm and include interactions and contraindications, case studies and practical sessions with live customer interactions to embed the learning. The sessions can be customised to your needs; simply contact us and we will tailor a program just for your team.
FOUR-DAY RETAIL CONSULTANT COURSE: This course runs over two
sessions of two days and covers: the functions of vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids; identifying groups at risk of deficiency; protocols and procedures regarding advising on appropriate use of complementary medicines; and identifying relevant products to meet customer health and wellbeing needs.
Supporting your patients and customers takes more than just product knowledge. To help keep you up-to-date on the latest scientific
evidence and best-practice guidelines on complementary medicine, please join our community.
