[Sigia-l] Organizing FAQ's

[Andrew Boyd]

On 3/31/07, Roger Zender <rogerzender at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Does anyone have examples of this being done already?  Any thoughts
> on why this may be a good, or not so good idea?  Any other scenarios
> for dealing with a fairly large amount of FAQ's that someone could
> recommend?

Hi Roger,

we're doing something similar with a decision support system design
(precategorising submissions for new medicines onto Australia's
Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or PBS) - giving the pharma companies
enough information so that they know which questions to ask to enable
them to submit the right subset of information - lots of FAQs and
downline FAQs from these. We think it is a good idea because it saves
them having to interpret a heavily overwritten set of guidelines that
are several hundred pages in length. If it works, other people might
think it is a good idea too :)

Right now, if a submission sponsor (pharma company, distributor or
community health group) makes a submission for a new listing to PBS,
and they get the categorisation wrong, there is a delay in the
listing. The details are still to be worked out, but within a year,
there will be a cost recovery process (i.e. an application fee for new
submissions), so there will be even more pressure on them to get that
categorisation right the first time. The human face of this is very
important - people can die if the medicine they need is not available
to them at the government subsidised price. We want it to work.

If interested, there is background on the PBS at
http://www.health.gov.au/pbs and the current development program at
http://www.health.gov.au/pharmbiz

Cheers, Andrew