BACKGROUND New pharmacological therapies are challenging the healthcare systems, and there is an increasing need to assess their therapeutic value in relation to existing alternatives as well as their potential budget impact. Consequently, new models to introduce drugs in healthcare are urgently needed. In the metropolitan health region of Stockholm, Sweden, a model has been developed including...

BACKGROUND Granting dispensing pharmacists the authority to prescribe has significant implications for pharmaceutical and health human resources policy, and quality of care. Despite the growing number of jurisdictions that have given pharmacists such privileges, there are few rigorous evaluations of these policy changes. This study will examine a January 2009 policy change in British Columbia (...

BACKGROUND Pain is among the most commonly treated symptoms in the emergency department, and opioids are commonly prescribed from the emergency department to treat moderate to severe pain. Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) can be used to assist physicians identify individuals at increased risk to misuse or abuse opioids. While the use of the PDMP has been shown useful among clinician...

Introduction. Antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are used to treat different conditions in elderly patients and are among the drug classes most susceptible to be involved in drug-drug interactions (DDI). The aim of the study was to describe and compare use of AEDs between home care service and nursing home patients, as these patients are not included in nationwide databases of drug utilization. In the ...

BACKGROUND Adoption of step therapy (ST) is quickly outpacing the market's understanding of its clinical, humanistic, and economic outcomes. The broad scope of previous reviews of drug management programs has prohibited an in-depth discussion of the ST literature specifically. OBJECTIVE To conduct a critical review of ST program evaluations, discuss their policy implications, and provide reco...

BACKGROUND The aim was to determine distribution and trends in the outpatient utilization of antipsychotics to evaluate the rationality of antipsychotic drug prescribing during the ten year period. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The epidemiological method of descriptive and analytical observation was used. Data on drug utilization from Zagreb Municipal Pharmacy were used to calculate the number of defi...