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Promoting Rational Drug Use Practices

The document discusses the rationale for the appropriate use of medicines, highlighting issues such as inappropriate prescribing and lack of access to essential medications. It outlines twelve core interventions to promote rational medicine use, including the establishment of a national body for coordination, clinical guidelines, and public education. Additionally, it emphasizes the responsibilities of drug and therapeutic committees and regulatory measures to ensure safe and effective medicine use.

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24 views8 pages

Promoting Rational Drug Use Practices

The document discusses the rationale for the appropriate use of medicines, highlighting issues such as inappropriate prescribing and lack of access to essential medications. It outlines twelve core interventions to promote rational medicine use, including the establishment of a national body for coordination, clinical guidelines, and public education. Additionally, it emphasizes the responsibilities of drug and therapeutic committees and regulatory measures to ensure safe and effective medicine use.

Uploaded by

rxmacare
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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RATIONALE USE OF

MEDICINES
• Patients receive medications appropriate for their clinical needs, in
doses that meet their own individual requirements, for an adequate
period of time, and at the lowest cost to them and their community
(WHO,1985)
• It is estimated that more than 50% of medicines are prescribed,
dispensed or sold inappropriately while 50% of patients fail to take
their medications correctly.
• More than one-third of world population lacks access to essential
medicines
• Examples of irrational medicine use include
• Polypharmacy
• Use of antibacterial for non-bacteria infections
• Over use of injections when oral medications would be appropriate
• Failure to prescribe according to clinical guidelines
• Inappropriate self-medication
Twelve core interventions to
promote rational use of medicines
• A mandatory multi-disciplinary national body to co-ordinate medicine
use policies
• Clinical guidelines
• EDL based on treatments of choice
• Drug and therapeutics committee in districts and hospitals
• Problem based pharmacotherapy training in undergraduate curricula
• Continuing in-service medical education as a licensure requirement
• Supervision, audit and feedback
• Independent information on medicines
• Public education about medicines
• Avoidance of perverse financial incentives
• Appropriate and enforced regulation
• Sufficient government expenditure to ensure availability of medicines
and staff.
Responsibilities of a drug and
therapeutic committee
• Developing, adapting or adopting clinical guidelines for health
institutions
• Selecting cost-effective and safe medicines
• Implementing and evaluating strategies to improve medicine use
• Providing on-going staff education
• Controlling access to staff by the pharmaceutical industry with its
promotional activities
• Monitoring and taking action to prevent ADR and medication errors
• Providing advice about drug management issues, such as quality and
expenditure.
Regulatory measures to support
rational use
• Registration of medicines to ensure only safe and efficacious medicines are
available in the market
• Limiting prescription of medicines by level of prescribers or being available as
prescription or OTC
• Setting educational standards for health professionals and enforcing code of
conduct
• Licensing health professional to ensure HCWs have competence to diagnose,
prescribe and dispense medicines
• Licensing of medicines outlets
• Monitoring and regulating medicine promotion to ensure that it is ethical and
unbiased.
• All promotional claims must be reliable, accurate, truthful,
informative and in line with ethical guidelines.

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