Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee
The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme aims to make health care more affordable for Australians by subsidising medicines that are shown to be effective.
The Guidelines for preparing submissions to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee explain how to prepare a submission to list a new medicine or medicinal product on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (ie for public funding). They provide detailed instructions on what information is required to support a proposed new medicine, and the most appropriate form of clinical evidence and economic evaluation for submissions.
The guidelines are therefore an essential resource for pharmaceutical companies and the Australian healthcare system, and need to be as clear and easy to navigate as possible.
Biotext worked closely with the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee to transform the guidelines from a dense collection of chapters, forms and appendixes to a revised structure that uses a clear flow of information requests, backed up with flowcharts and other navigational aids for users.
Our role:
Content analysis – we developed a deep understanding of the content, the submission process, and how companies use the guide
Information architecture – we interviewed guideline developers and users to find out what they needed from the guidelines, and revised the structure and text to improve information flow
Writing and editing – we transformed the content from dense text to a plain-language format that could be easily scanned and navigated
Digital design – we updated flowcharts, checklists and other visual information, and designed the website and a PDF version for printing
Content strategy – to improve the production of such a complex publication, we developed a multiformat workflow to generate Word, PDF and HTML files that makes future updates easier