Queensland's new 10-year digital health strategy, a sneak peek at the new Monash Children's Hospital, the establishment of a diagnostic imaging program and a strong opinion piece by HIMAA CEO Richard Lawrance on the shaky state of the health information management professions were all popular stories this week, but one that caught our attention concerned a topic we have been following closely for some years now: real-time monitoring of prescription drugs.

While the Pharmacy Guild's MedsASSIST system was set up as part of a multi-pronged strategy to resist the rescheduling of pharmacy-only (S3) medicines containing codeine to prescription-only (S4), the development of the system showed what could be done if there was a will and a way. As everyone in the healthcare industry knows, the Guild is a force to be reckoned with and the power of its lobbying strength puts almost any other industry association to shame, and while it ultimately lost the battle to keep sales of codeine-containing analgesics over the counter, the speed with which it designed, built and rolled out MedsASSIST showed what it can do when it sets its mind to it.