E-drug: Electronic prescribing (cont'd)
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We have read Ken Harvey's interesting message on affordability being a
barrier to the uptake of e-prescribing, particularly in developing
countries, and how the WHO Model Formulary (WMF) would be "a useful place to
start [the process of localising medical information]". We fully agree with
this sentiment. The idea of developing different digital formats of the WMF
is indeed to facilitate the process of people in countries developing local
formularies.
The complex publication process for the WMF and our collaboration with
colleagues at the British National Formulary (BNF) on this project implies
that we work closely with the BNF in content development to produce the
print, web and CD-ROM formats. The complexity of the process arises from
the need mainly to ensure the accuracy and quality of the content, and not
from any attempt to 'protect' the data from being extracted or copied.
On the issue of copyright, the WMF is an important WHO publication and
therefore carries the standard copyright notice in accordance with WHO
policy. However, we encourage and are in fact facilitating the process of
users extracting and localising the information on the CD-ROM (as mentioned
in the sleeve notes). Of course, although obvious, it should be noted that
WHO responsibility for the CD-ROM content ends once the text has been
extracted and the process of localisation begins.
The present 2002 version of the WMF on CD-ROM has a facility to export text
in either HTML or .txt format. WHO is currently working on the next edition
of the Model Formulary, the CD version of which will provide user-friendly
options for extracting pre-formatted Formulary text to MS Word or another
word-processing software (possibly open-source), so that people can produce
local formularies adding local information (e.g. on pricing) as appropriate.
The electronic software used to develop the Web and CD-ROM versions of the
WMF was chosen primarily because it offers the best option to produce a
quality, stand-alone WHO electronic publication that runs universally on all
kinds of PC, while maintaining the integrity of the original content. A
User Guide also in preparation will provide guidelines on how best to use
the CD-ROM in developing a local formulary, with suggested additions, and
sources of relevant information.
Translations of the WMF into Russian, Spanish, Arabic and French are
underway, and we expect that the process and software tools developed to
produce digital versions for these languages will also be made available to
users producing local formularies in local languages. WHO is open to
suggestions as to how the content of the WMF could be included in other
electronic sources of objective pharmaceutical information.
Lalit Dwivedi, Robin Gray, Hans Hogerzeil and Richard Laing
Department of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy
World Health Organization
Avenue Appia 20
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland
E-mails: dwivedil@who.int; grayr@who.int; hogerzeilh@who.int; laingr@who.int
Access Essential Drugs Monitor #32 at http://www.who.int/medicines/mon/mon32.shtml
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