E-DRUG: WHO model formulary
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[from www.who.int/medicine]
Update on current situation - WHO Model Formulary
In 1995 the WHO Expert Committee on the Use of Essential Drugs recommended
to develop a WHO Model Formulary which would complement the WHO Model List
of Essential Drugs (the "Model List") and that would be updated every two
years. It was considered that such a Model Formulary would be a useful
resource for countries wishing to develop their own national formulary.
After a first consultation in April 1996 work was started to draft sections
of the text according to the therapeutic categories in the Model List. A
second consultation was held in Helsinki in September 1997, at which
several draft sections of the text were discussed. At a third consultation
in October 1999 the full text was reviewed.
In November 1999 the Expert Committee on the Use of Essential Drugs
reviewed progress in the project. It recommended that WHO accept an offer
by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (which, together with
the British Medical Association, publishes the British National Formulary)
to take responsibility for final data validation, editing and lay-out.
Agreement to this effect was reached in early 2000.
During the validation process all statements in the draft text were
compared with the original references and checked for consistency with
other WHO documents and recommendations and reputable drug information
sources. A full record of this validation and all ensuing technical and
editorial changes to the draft text, with the underlying reasons and the
relevant references, is available. As this was the first edition of a new
reference text this work took almost two years and was completed by the end
of 2001. During this process when necessary the text was updated to take
into account new information that had become available since the time of
writing. Monographs were included for the small number of essential drugs
that had been added to the Model List in November 1999.
Although the initial plan was to maintain in the Model Formulary the
section headings and numbering system of the Model List, this proved
difficult in practice. The main reason was that the sections of the Model
List are not always useful as therapeutic categories, and do not easily
lend themselves to introductory evaluative statements. Small changes were
therefore introduced. The Model Formulary has also been relatively generous
in repeating the formulary text of essential drugs under other relevant
therapeutic categories.
The lack of full concurrence with the numbering system of the Model List
should not be a major problem for users. They will be able to access
information readily either through the content list or through the main
index which includes both drug names and disease terms. Dissemination of
the Model List and the Model Formulary will focus on electronic access
through CD-ROMs and the WHO Medicines web site in which electronic links
between the Model Formulary and the Model List are easy.
The electronic version of the Model Formulary is also intended as a
starting point for developing national or institutional formularies. Rather
than having to start completely from the beginning, national or
institutional formulary committees can adapt the text of the Model
Formulary to their own needs by changing the text or aligning the formulary
to their own list of essential drugs by adding or deleting entries.
At the time of the Committee meeting (April 2002) the Model Formulary was
in print; the electronic versions are expected to become available in the
course of 2002.
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