Skip to main content
PMC home page
CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal logoLink to CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal
. 1996 May 1;154(9):1325–1331.

Developing a Canadian prescribing practices network. Network Development Committee of the Canadian Prescribing Practices Network Project.

A M Holbrook 1, S M MacLeod 1, P Fisher 1, M A Levine 1
PMCID: PMC1487700  PMID: 8616735

Abstract

Expenditure on drug therapy in Canada has been growing at a faster rate than spending on any other aspect of health care. Increasing societal pressure to use scarce resources more efficiently, advances in communication technology and data indicating that there is room for improvement in drug prescribing suggest that the time has come for an organized linkage of the available drug-utilization and health-outcomes data-bases across the country. A national prescribing practices network would assist prescribers, researchers and policymakers to optimize prescribing with respect to both cost effectiveness and health outcomes. The authors outline the main concerns addressed in the 1994 report to the National Pharmaceutical Strategy and present the results of discussions by the Canadian Prescribing Practices Network Project with respect to the potential users and data sources of a national network and the communications technology on which it would rely.

Full text

PDF
1328

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Anderson G. M., Lexchin J. Strategies for improving prescribing practice. CMAJ. 1996 Apr 1;154(7):1013–1017. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Anis A. H., Carruthers S. G., Carter A. O., Kierulf J. Variability in prescription drug utilization: issues for research. CMAJ. 1996 Mar 1;154(5):635–640. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Davis D. A., Thomson M. A., Oxman A. D., Haynes R. B. Evidence for the effectiveness of CME. A review of 50 randomized controlled trials. JAMA. 1992 Sep 2;268(9):1111–1117. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Grasela T. H., Walawander C. A., Kennedy D. L., Jolson H. M. Capability of hospital computer systems in performing drug-use evaluations and adverse drug event monitoring. Am J Hosp Pharm. 1993 Sep;50(9):1889–1895. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Guyatt G. H., Sackett D. L., Cook D. J. Users' guides to the medical literature. II. How to use an article about therapy or prevention. A. Are the results of the study valid? Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA. 1993 Dec 1;270(21):2598–2601. doi: 10.1001/jama.270.21.2598. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Guyatt G. H., Sackett D. L., Cook D. J. Users' guides to the medical literature. II. How to use an article about therapy or prevention. B. What were the results and will they help me in caring for my patients? Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA. 1994 Jan 5;271(1):59–63. doi: 10.1001/jama.271.1.59. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Haynes R. B. Loose connections between peer-reviewed clinical journals and clinical practice. Ann Intern Med. 1990 Nov 1;113(9):724–728. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-113-9-724. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Herxheimer A. Systematic reviews of randomised controlled trials: important for clinical pharmacologists. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 1993 Dec;36(6):507–509. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1993.tb00408.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hogerzeil H. V. Promoting rational prescribing: an international perspective. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 1995 Jan;39(1):1–6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1995.tb04402.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Lomas J., Haynes R. B. A taxonomy and critical review of tested strategies for the application of clinical practice recommendations: from "official" to "individual" clinical policy. Am J Prev Med. 1988;4(4 Suppl):77–97. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mant A. Pharmaceutical health promotion: a new concept in therapeutics. Soc Sci Med. 1994 Aug;39(3):305–306. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90126-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Naylor C. D., Guyatt G. H. Users' guides to the medical literature. X. How to use an article reporting variations in the outcomes of health services. The Evidence-Based Medicine Working Group. JAMA. 1996 Feb 21;275(7):554–558. doi: 10.1001/jama.275.7.554. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ray W. A., Griffin M. R., Avorn J. Evaluating drugs after their approval for clinical use. N Engl J Med. 1993 Dec 30;329(27):2029–2032. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199312303292710. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Robinson A. Research, practice and the Cochrane Collaboration. CMAJ. 1995 Mar 15;152(6):883–889. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Woosley R. L. Centers for education and research in therapeutics. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1994 Mar;55(3):249–255. doi: 10.1038/clpt.1994.24. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal are provided here courtesy of Canadian Medical Association

RESOURCES