South Australian Medicines Evaluation Panel (SAMEP)

The South Australian Medicines Evaluation Panel (SAMEP) was established in 2011 as an expert standing committee of the South Australian Medicines Advisory Committee (SAMAC) to ensure that all public hospitals provide a consistent approach to the management of High Cost Medicines. The main role of SAMEP is to review the use of High Cost Medicines, for a list of medicines being reviewed or previously reviewed, see the High Cost Medicine reviews page. 

SAMEP were the winners of the 2014 SA Health Award "Excellence in Non-clinical Services"

Their role

The role of SAMEP includes:

  • Evaluating the safety, the clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of high cost medicines proposed for inclusion in the Statewide High Cost Medicines Formulary.
  • Initiating reviews to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of high cost medicines which are not registered for use within Australia for the purpose of providing guidance to local hospital drug committees with regards to consideration of individual patient use requests.
  • Making recommendations to SAMAC with regards to which high cost medicines should be made available in South Australian public hospitals and on the potential place in therapy of these medicines.
  • Facilitating the monitoring of high cost medicine use in South Australian public hospitals.

Meeting dates

SAMEP meet every two months to review high cost medicine formulary applications. The next scheduled meetings for 2022 are:

  • 20 July
  • 14 September
  • 9 November

Membership

Chaired by Dr Tilenka Thynne, SAMEP includes specialist clinicians, pharmacists, health economists, an ethicist and a consumer representative. Members include:

  • Dr Tilenka Thynne, Clinical Pharmacologist and Endocrinologist, Flinders Medical Centre
  • Dr Damian Clark, Paediatric Neurologist, Women's and Children's Hospital
  • Dr Chris Pearson, General Medicine, Women's and Children's Hospital
  • Dr Ganessan Kichenadasse, Consultant, Medical Oncology, Flinders Medical Centre
  • Dr Sudarsha Selva-Nayagam Director Medical Oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital
  • Ass Prof Michael Ward, Professorial Lead: Pharmacy and Biosciences, Discipline Leader: Pharmacy Education, UniSA Clinical and Health Sciences
  • Ms Joy Gailer, Clinical Pharmacist, Drug and Therapeutics Information Service, Repatriation General Hospital
  • Ms Catherine Booth, Clinical Pharmacist, Women's and Children's Hospital
  • Dr Benjamin Reddi, Staff Specialist, Intensive Care Unit, Royal Adelaide Hospital
  • Ms Naomi Burgess Director, Medicines & Technology Programs, SA Health (ex officio)
  • Dr Pravin Hissaria, Clinical Immunologist and Immunopathologist, Royal Adelaide Hospital
  • Ms Camille Schubert, Health Economist, Adelaide Health technology Assessment, University of Adelaide
  • Dr David Ross, Department of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, The Royal Adelaide Hospital
  • Mr David Tamblyn, Evaluator, Adelaide Health Technology Assessment, University of Adelaide
  • Dr Paul Wabnitz, Consultant Physician & Specialist Clinical Pharmacologist, Integrated Care, CALHN
  • Prof Brett Bowden, Consumer Representative
  • Dr Agnes Vitry, Senior Pharmacist, Executive Officer, Medicines & Technology Programs, SA Health

Contact

All enquiries regarding the High Cost Medicines policy or SAMEP should be directed to SAMEP@sa.gov.au.