As policymakers debate adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, they must also seek ways to promote cost-effective use of drugs and minimize inappropriate prescribing. For more than a decade, all state Medicaid agencies and most private insurers have used computerized drug utilization review (DUR) programs to prevent or rectify potential prescribing errors. DUR can be retrospective, in w...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Information available on drug consumption is inadequate in most low and middle income countries. This systematic review was conducted to analyse published work on drug utilization research/studies (DUR) in the SEARO region of WHO for study objectives, methodology, results and recommendations and to identify the need for improving DUR and the use of the ATC/DDD system. ...

In this article the authors present population-level prevalence rates for 61 specific drug-related problems occurring in three State Medicaid programs (Maryland, Iowa, and Washington) from 1989 through 1996 and a fourth (Georgia) from 1994 through 1996. The findings represent the first application of a consistent drug utilization review (DUR) screener program to Medicaid data across States. The...

• Objective: To assess the impact of a drug utilization review (DUR) alert letter program on metformin discontinuation rates in patients with a metformin claim and an absolute contraindication to metformin

background: increasing antimicrobial resistance is now a critical point of human being in the world. especially wide spectrum antibiotics resistance germs like vancomycin-resistant enterococci (vre) should be dealt as soon as possible as an emergency conflict. our study tries to reveal the amount of irrational use of vancomycin in a teaching hospital in iran. methods: we elected the whole inpat...

this study was performed to assess the incidence of medication errors and irrational use of human albumin in two wards of our hospital and also aimed to evaluate the ability of pharmaceutical care center and pharmacists in improving patient care. albumin administration was evaluated for patients who received albumin during the study period, in gastroenterology and general surgery wards. the ind...

background: drug use evaluation (due) aims at improving the patients’ care. studying the administration pattern of intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) is an important research topic due to its significant role in the treatment and controlling of many disorders, high prices, and limited availability of this drug. methods: this observational cross-sectional study was conducted at shahid sadoughi ho...

background: the inappropriate use of aminoglycosides has harmful effects such as the development of resistant pathogens and the incidence of nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity. therefore, drug utilization evaluation of these drugs may improve their usage remarkably. the aim of this study was to assess the usage pattern of amikacin in an internal medicine ward. methods: this cross-sectional study wa...