engleski

Monitoring the adherence to WHOs Essential Medicines by using the Drug Utilization 90% concept– a useful method for quality assessment of drug utilization

The concept of Essential Medicines is one of the most important tools available for improving public health in developing countries and key elements include the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (1, 2). It has been proposed that developed countries could also make use of the Model List to a greater extent, in particular to promote better quality of care and control drug expenditure (2). However, the applicability of the Essential Medicines concept for industrialized countries has been questioned and there is a lack of studies analysing the use of the Model List in this context (3). In this article, adherence to the 2003 WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) was analysed through an observational study of medicines use in outpatient care in two European countries — Croatia and Sweden. Data on dispensed prescriptions and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs were collected from wholesalers in Croatia and pharmacies in Sweden. WHO Collaborating Centres in Norway and Sweden have developed and apply several methodologies to evaluate drug use and quality of drug utilization patterns. In the study, analyses focused on medicines accounting for 90% of use in Defined Daily Doses (DU90%). DU90% profiles provide a quick method to overview and evaluate potential for improvement while offering a reflection on the relevance and appropriateness of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines.

essential drugs; DU90%

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