This handbook provides Australia-based information for health professionals on how to administer medicines safely to people unable to swallow solid oral medicines.

It contains over 500 monographs on solid oral medicines, which are on the Australian market, listing generic names, brand names, forms and strengths. Separate recommendations for patients with swallowing difficulties and patients with enteral feeding tubes are being given.

Fiedler Encyclopedia of Excipients describes the properties of more than 17,000 excipients that are used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. The descriptions contain: chemical name, synonyms, structural formula, pharmacopoeial references, CAS Registry number (Chemical Abstract Service), synthesis, properties, use, toxicology, analysis.

The Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients contains approximately 380 excipient monographs. The data contains information on physical properties, safety and potential toxicity of the excipients.

The monographs include pharmacopoeial information, non-proprietary names and synonyms, chemical name, CAS Registry number, empirical formula, molecular weight, functional category, applications and incompatibilities, material description and typical excipient properties, safety, stability, storage and handling precautions.

Martindale contains approximately 6,000 monographs on active substances and excipients. It contains information on uses and administration as well adverse effects, treatment of adverse effects, precautions, interactions, pharmacokinetics. For each substance the following characteristics are given: synonyms, pharmacopoeial description and solubility if available, proprietary preparation names.

MEDLINE is a bibliographic database of life sciences and biomedical information. It contains references to articles from academic journals covering medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care, biology and biochemistry.

PubMed provides free access to MEDLINE. It also includes articles from other sources. Pubmed is helpful for searching additional information on therapeutic relevance of active substances. It contains abstracts and links to full-text articles.

Stabilis is a database with information about stability and compatibility of parenteral medicines (injectable medicines). For each drug the following information is given: trade names in different countries, stability in solution, stability in admixtures, factors which affect its stability, incompatibilities and routes of administration. Relevant references are also mentioned. The stability information of parenteral medicines can be useful to determine the stability on liquid medicines in general.

Stabilis also gives stability information of some other pharmaceutical preparation, such as eye-drops, ointments, oral solution. Data about stability of the dilutions and the compatibilities are examined by experts, who only include them in Stabilis if the shelf life testing is reliable. Stabilis uses pictograms and the information is translated into 28 languages.

This textbook is on the design and preparation and discusses the underlying principles. It discusses the design of dosage forms, particle and powder technology, pharmaceutical microbiology and sterilisation, biopharmaceutical principles of pharmaceutical availability and the manufacturing of preparations.

Martin’s Physical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences focuses on the underlying principles of physics, chemistry and biology for the development of dosage forms. The last chapter gives a review of problems, including answers at the end, helping students to understand the content more easily.

Pharmatopia is an open education site for pharmacists and students. It has a collection of interactive web-based learning modules, containing presentations/lectures, assessments, reference materials, workshops and training etc. The information is subdivided in different subjects: Chemistry/Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacy practice, Pharmaceutics/Drug Delivery and Pharmacology/ Drug Discovery and Biology. There is also a community for social networking and for exchanging information and knowledge. Universities/pharmacists can share their education resources with each other on this website.

In 2014 the information on preparation is limited but it is expected to expand.