Prescribing and dispensing data sources in New Zealand: their usage and future directions (original) (raw)
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European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2003
This study was set up to document the variability of prescribing information from different sources concerning indications, side effects and cautions of selected drugs. An original method to measure the degree of information agreement among different written materials, such as summaries of product characteristics, package inserts and data sheets, and a widely accepted reference text was developed. The results show that there is substantial disagreement in the materials available to prescribers and patients in different countries. Disagreement was even found within a single country when written materials from different 1 brands of the same drug were compared. The discordance can be explained by the fact that the evidence available for each drug is considered/assessed differently by separate countries.
Australian dispensing doctors' prescribing: quantitative and qualitative analysis
The Medical journal of Australia, 2011
To evaluate the prescribing practices of Australian dispensing doctors (DDs) and to explore their interpretations of the findings. Sequential explanatory mixed methods. The quantitative phase comprised analysis of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) claims data of DDs and non-DDs, 1 July 2005-30 June 2007. The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with DDs in rural and remote general practice across Australian states, August 2009-February 2010. The number of PBS prescriptions per 1000 patients and use of Regulation 24 of the National Health (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Regulations 1960 (r. 24); DDs' interpretation of the findings. 72 DDs' and 1080 non-DDs' PBS claims data were analysed quantitatively. DDs issued fewer prescriptions per 1000 patients (9452 v 15 057; P = 0.003), even with a similar proportion of concessional patients and patients aged > 65 years in their populations. DDs issued significantly more r. 24 prescriptions per 1000 prescriptions ...
Essay: Prescription PHARMACEUTICAL PRESCRIPTIONS: TRACING THEIR EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Andi Muhammad 'Ulya Fitroh, 2024
Pharmaceutical prescriptions are an important element in the health system that function as legal documents written by doctors to provide instructions to pharmacists in providing medicines to patients. In the context of technological developments and ever-changing medical practices, the relevance of pharmaceutical prescriptions needs to be analyzed from multiple perspectives, including legal, ethical, and technological. This research shows that although traditional prescriptions are still considered relevant, the emergence of telemedicine and e-prescription practices raises new challenges, such as the risk of medication errors and data security issues. In addition, ethical aspects emphasize the importance of patient understanding of treatment instructions to increase compliance with treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes in prescribing practices, demonstrating that health systems can adapt quickly to societal needs. Therefore, adaptive regulations and collaboration between doctors, pharmacists and policy makers are needed to ensure that drug prescriptions remain relevant, safe and effective in providing quality health services to patients.
National Prescribing Service: creating an implementation arm for national medicines policy
British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2005
Medicines make an essential contribution to the health of the community, but rapidly rising drug budgets have caused governments to seek ways of ensuring this expenditure results in value for money. The National Prescribing Service was established against this background to implement a quality use of medicines service as par t of the National Medicines Policy. A range of programmes that attempt to use evidencebased strategies to deliver evidence-based messages have been established. These use multifaceted interventions, such as newsletters, prescriber feedback, clinical audit and educational visiting, that are provided both centrally, through the national office, and locally, through Divisions of General Practice. The work is underpinned by an evaluation strategy that incorporates strong qualitative elements as well as an emphasis on time-series analyses for changes in drug utilization. Some 80% of Australian general practitioners have voluntarily participated in activities such as educational visiting and clinical audit within the National Prescribing Service prog rammes. New programmes for the community and consumers will be coordinated with the work that has become well established within general practice.
Introduction: Medicines have made an appreciable contribution to improving patient care in recent years. However, European and other countries are increasingly struggling to fund new premium priced medicines. This has resulted in models to optimise their utilisation as well as multiple initiatives to improve the prescribing of established medicines including enhancing the use of low cost generics, improving adherence to prescribing guidance as well as access to medicines, ensuring adequate doses are prescribed and improving patient adherence rates especially in chronic asymptomatic conditions. Objective: Review a range of demand-side initiatives in ambulatory care across different countries and their resultant effects to provide future direction. Methodology: Principally a narrative review of case histories of published studies. Results: Measures to encourage the prescribing of low cost generics versus originators and patented products in a class can release considerable resources w...
Comprehensive Comparison of Drug Prescribing in the United States and United Kingdom
Pharmacotherapy the Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy, 2011
Study Objective. To compare the frequency of outpatient drug prescribing in the United States and United Kingdom according to individual drugs and therapeutic categories during 2004-2006. Design. Retrospective prescription record review. Data Sources. United Kingdom General Practice Research Database, and the MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters Database for U.S. data. Subjects. In the U.K. database, we identified 1.6 million people younger than 65 years who were prescribed at least one prescription drug in at least one of the calendar years during the study period (2004-2006). For comparison, for each U.K. person identified, we randomly identified one person of the same sex and year of birth in the U.S. database who was also prescribed at least one drug in the same calendar year. Measurements and Main Results. We compared the frequency of prescribing of individual drugs, as well as selected therapeutic categories. Substantially higher proportions of people in the United States were prescribed antibiotics, statins, and postmenopausal hormones, but asthma drugs were prescribed more frequently in the United Kingdom. In those younger than 20 years, antidepressants and antipsychotics were prescribed more than twice as frequently in the United States, and males in the United States were far more likely to be prescribed drugs for attention-deficithyperactivity disorder than were their counterparts in the United Kingdom. Conclusion. This study provides documented quantification of differing patterns of drug use in the United States and United Kingdom during 2004-2006. The higher proportionate prescribing for most indications in the United States and the greater use of drugs under patent suggest that monetary costs are likely to be considerably higher in the United States than in the United Kingdom.
Examining non-medical prescribing trends in New Zealand: 2016–2020
BMC Health Services Research
Background Population growth and general practitioner workforce constraints are creating increasing demand for health services in New Zealand (NZ) and internationally. Non-medical prescribing (NMP) is one strategy that has been introduced to help manage this. Little is known about the NMP practice trends in NZ. The aim of this study was to provide a current overview of the scale, scope, and trends of NMP practice in NZ. Methods All claims for community dispensed medicines prescribed by a non-medical prescriber were extracted from the NZ Pharmaceutical Collection for the period 2016–2020. Patient demographics were retrieved from the Primary Health Organisation enrolment collection. These national databases contain prescription information for all subsidised community pharmacy medicines dispensed and healthcare enrolment data for 96% of New Zealanders. Results The proportion of prescriptions written by all NMP providers and patients receiving NMP prescriptions increased each year from...
Research Open Access Sources of drug information and their influence on the prescribing behaviour of
2013
Background: Pharmaceutical drug promotion is a means of informing health professionals about new drugs. The approach is often times unethical and inappropriate and may promote irrational prescribing. Dearth of information on impact of pharmaceutical drug promotion on prescribing behaviour of doctors in developing African countries has necessitated this study. We therefore aimed to determine the sources of drug information for doctors working in a teaching hospital in Nigeria and to assess the self-reported impact of the sources on their prescribing behaviour. Methods: A total of 163 doctors working at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan in Nigeria were evaluated with a questionnaire for their demographics and sources of drug information. For doctors who relied on drug promotion, they were asked to self-report and self-rate their opinion on extent of interactions with pharmaceutical companies as well as how such interactions had impacted on their prescribing behaviour. Apart from the demographics, each question was evaluated with a typical five-level Likert item. Data analyses were with simple descriptive statistics. Results: Of the 400 doctors working at UCH, only 40.8% participated in the study. Drug information was sourced from colleagues (161, 98.8%), reference books (158, 96.9%), pharmaceutical sales representatives-PSRs (152, 93.2%), promotion materials (151, 92.6%), scientific papers/journals/internet (149, 91.4%), and drug promotion forum/product launches (144, 88.3%). Each source was highly utilized but there was no wide variation in their pattern of use. According to the self-report of over a half of the respondents, PSRs was an accurate and reliable drug information resource; PSRs increased their awareness of the promoted drugs; and their prescribing behaviours were influenced by information from PSRs. Conclusion: Respondents tend to rely on a broad range of drug information resources which include potentially inappropriate resources such as PSRs. Since this study was based on self-report, the influence of drug information resources reported by the respondents on their prescribing behaviour may have been underestimated. Measures should be taken to minimize interactions between PSRs and the respondents.