The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will soon begin research in the area of drug utilization to address research questions on various areas related to drug utilization research.
Drug utilization research studies are important for policy making at national level as well as individual patient management and for evaluating extent of adverse drug reactions to drugs. However information on drug utilization is lacking in our country. Systematic review of published literature showed that drug utilization research studies are mostly hospital based, rather than community based, do not use ATC/DDD system, have not analysed prescription patterns for deviations from standard treatment guidelines or safety warning, and evaluation of interventions to improve prescribing practices are lacking.
Drug utilization research involves study of marketing, distribution, prescription and use of drugs in a society with special emphasis on the resulting medical, social and economic consequences. The WHO antatomical, therapeutic and chemical (ATC) classification system provides global standard for classifying drugs. A unit of measurement called defined daily dose (DDD) is the assumed average maintenance dose per year for a drug used for its main indication in adults.
The ATC/DDD system serves as tool for drug utilization research and allows comparison of drug consumption statistics at international/national and various levels of healthcare setting, Govt of India has plans for universal access to essential medicines. Standardized, validated information on drug use is essential for assessing rational/irrational patterns of drug utilization, identification of problems of access, education and other interventions and monitoring the outcomes of interventions for the rational use of drugs.
Scientists on regular employment in the medical colleges, post graduate institutions, universities, recognized research institutes and development laboratories and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are eligible to participate in this research programme. NGOs should have a minimum of 3 years experience of working after their registration, good track record of working and they need to be registered with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), government of India.