# E-DRUG: Re: Drug and Therapeutics Committees (contd) **URL:** \ **Category:** e-drug\ **Created:** [September 15, 1998, 8:39pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-re-drug-and-therapeutics-committees-contd/3478 "1998-09-15T20:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![richardl1951](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@richardl1951](https://talk.edrugplus.org/u/richardl1951)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 1998, 8:39pm UTC](https://talk.edrugplus.org/t/e-drug-re-drug-and-therapeutics-committees-contd/3478/1 "1998-09-15T20:39:24Z")
E-drug: E-DRUG: Re: Drug and Therapeutics Committees (contd) ---------------------------------------------------------- The message from Dr Shariff is very interesting as these ideas have been considered for DTC's in Zimbabwe but there are problems. The WHO indicators of drug use in health facilities are for out patients not inpatients and they do not work so well for inpatients. They are affected by disease mix and duration of admission. Reviewing how often the formulary is revised may be useful but if the committee meets every month and discusses changes would these count as new editions? Sending out news bulletins may be a measure of activity but unfortunately we know they do not correalate with changes in practice. So I think we need to try other measures. My suggestions include: Frequency of D&T meetings, attendance rates, studies undertaken, success of interventions, changes in consumption of targetted drugs. However we need to field test these indicators and so I think the proposed WHO manual will be very useful for these tests. Richard Laing Associate Professor Department of International Health Boston University School of Public Health 715 Albany St Boston MA 02118-2526 Tel 617 414-1444 Fax 617 414-1442 or 638-4476 richardl@bu.edu -- Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'. Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.