engleski

Drug Utilization Research

Research in drug utilization began to develop in the 1960s as a result of growing concerns about unintended drug effects and the cost of drugs. Drug utilization studies had been conducted previously by pharmaceutical companies, but the data from these studies were, in general, not available to the authorities, healthcare providers, or researchers. In the US, the 2 early development of drug utilization studies was largely driven by federal government initiatives, with the purpose of curbing Medicaid expenditures while ensuring quality of care.1 The pharmaceutical industry early on expressed the need for drug utilization data to monitor the performance of their drug representatives (sales tracking), as well as to define areas for future drug development and research. This need laid a basis for the development of large, commercial databases documenting drug prescribing and sales per region (Intercontinental Medical Statistics ; IMS).2 The concern about drug expenditures was a major incentive in the development of statistics on drug use, independent of those produced by drug companies for marketing purposes. These statistics were initially compiled for the purpose of making better-informed financial, administrative, and reimbursement decisions, but may also have contributed data directly applicable to health studies. The thalidomide disaster further emphasized the importance of monitoring the extent and pattern of drug use to assess the incidence and distribution of the risk of drug use...

drug utilization

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