The NZF is an independent resource providing healthcare professionals with clinically validated medicines information and guidance on best practice, enabling healthcare professionals to select safe and effective medicines for individual patients.
The NZF is a resource that is available free of charge for all healthcare professionals prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines across community and hospital care. The NZF addresses the need for general purpose, point-of-care information about the use of medicines in New Zealand. It aids decision making and contributes to best practice through standardised and evidence-based information about medicines. Over time the NZF will be fully integrated into the e-health environment, including prescribing and dispensing systems across primary and secondary care.
The NZF builds on the New Zealand Universal List of Medicines, and incorporates information from the British National Formulary (BNF). It is adapted for the New Zealand context and covers medicines used in New Zealand. Content and coverage will be continually updated.
Initially, the NZF will cover information such as:
Further enhancements are planned over time such as tools to allow integration of preferred medicines lists and local protocols in hospital care, and other extensions according to user feedback.
The NZF staff consists of a team of clinical pharmacists and technical staff.
Stuart McLauchlan
Andrea Naylor
Nic Potter
Stephen Higgs
Karl Andrews
Murray Tilyard
Eric Robertson
Kaye Baldwin Corporate Manager and Board Secretary
Sarah Kirk (BSc (Otago), BCom (Otago), PGDipDigHeal (Otago))
Heather Evans (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Lucy Broughton (BPharm (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Kirsten Simonsen (BPharm (Otago), M(Clin)Pharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Alice Cuthbert (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Arlene Jamieson (BPharm (Hons) (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Belfast), NZRegPharm)
Rachel Leeder (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Abbie Muir (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Stacey Smith (BPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm)
Reuben Elder (BSc (Hon) (Otago))
Stephen Chalmers (BEd (Otago), DipGrad(Computer Science) (Otago))
Shayne Hunter (chair) Ministry of Health
Chris James Medsafe Ministry of Health
Rommel Anthony Medsafe Ministry of Health
Matt Doogue Canterbury District Health Board
Sean Dougherty Pharmac
Sadhana Maraj National Health IT Board
Martin Wilson Royal College of General Practitioners
David Reith (Chair) (MB BS(NSW) DCH (Lond) DipRACOG FRACP MMedSc (Pharm) PhD (Qld)) | Clinical Pharmacologist
Cass Byrnes (MBChB, GCCE, FRACP, MD) | Paediatrician
Chloe Campbell (BPharm (Hons) (Otago), MPS, NZRegPharm) | Medicines Information Pharmacist
Caroline De Luca (BPharm (Otago), PGDipClinPharm (Otago), NZRegPharm) | Paediatric Pharmacist
Sisira Jayathissa MBBS, MMedSc (Clin Epi), MD, FRCP (Lon, Edin) FRACP, FAFPHM, FNZCPHM, Dip Clin Epi, Dip OHP, Dip HSM, MBS | Consultant Physician and Geriatrician
Susan Kenyon (BPharm, PhD)
Kathy Maxwell (BPharm, PGDipClinPharm, MClinPharm, MPS, FNZCP, NZRegPharm) | Community Pharmacist
Howard Wilson (MB.BS (London), B.Sc. (London), Ph.D. (London), Dip.Obst. (Otago), FRNZCGP, FRACGP, FDRHM) | General Practitioner
The New Zealand Formulary team is grateful to individuals and organisations that have provided advice and information for the NZF.
D. Abernethy, T. Anderson, S. Barton, K. Ball, K. Bax, J. Carter, K. Clarke, B. Clayton-Smith, M. Crawford, R. Cutfield, M. Doogue, A. D'Souza, T. Duplessis, M. Eggleston, P. Ellis, C. Engelbrecht, A. Frew, E. Gane, P. Ganly, D. Gerrard, P. Glue, A. Harrison, D. Holland, R. Lukey, M. Lund, P. Manning, C. McAllum, S. McBride, M. McKellar, J. McMinn, G. McRae, A. Nolan, A. Oakley, P. Ockleford, N. Pollock, D. Purvis, G. Reynolds, C. Roke, A. Shirtcliffe, J. Skinner, N. Solomon, M. Stitely, M. Tatley, L. Te Karu, C. Thomson, C. Towns, N. Turner, R. Walker, C. Walters, R. Weinkove, D.Woods, R. Yap
S. Allan, K. Batty, E. Begg, D. Bettany, P. Buffery, L. Bryant, G. Devlin, A. Egan, R. Gray, C. Greasley, J. Fink, J. Kennedy, I. Hosford, J. Livesey, R. Lukey, E. Maher, L. McDermott, J. McElroy, R. MacKenzie, D. Miller, H. Paterson, H. Pilmore, J. Reid, S. Ram, S. Roberts, S. Salman, M. Shaw, J. Tatler, W. Van Der Merwe, A. Van Der Linden, J. Visser, P.D. Wilson, D. Wiseman, J. Wyeth
Best Practice Advocacy Centre (BPAC)
eTG complete (Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd., Melbourne) for drugs in breastfeeding information
Family Planning New Zealand
Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC)
Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC)
Medicines Information Services in NZ secondary care
New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority (Medsafe)
New Zealand National Poisons Centre (NPC)
New Zealand Guidelines Group
New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre
New Zealand Universal List of Medicines (NZULM)
Pharmacology Guidelines, Canterbury DHB
Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ)
SafeRx (Waitemata DHB)
New Zealand Hospital Pharmacists’ Association (NZHPA) Special Interest Groups
Therapeutic Goods Administration, Australia (TGA) for drugs in pregnancy categories
Other resources where links have been made from the NZF text
Updates to the online and pdf versions of the NZF are published on the 1st working day of each calendar month. It is vital to use the most recent release of the NZF for making clinical decisions.