[e-drug] Standard Treatment Guidelines (8)

["Beverley Snell" <bev@burnet.edu.au>]

E-DRUG: Standard Treatment Guidelines (8)
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Dear Chris,

Treatment guidelines that I have been involved with have not been all 
didactic.  A lot of other things as well as which medicines to use 
are written into them.  The guidelines include recognition of the 
role and perceptions of the patient, which will vary in different 
settings.  Patients' perceptions and whole needs have to be addressed 
and TGs can suggest appropriate strategies for your setting. Of 
course, non-drug recommendations are always included too.

'Treatment ' includes partnerships with patients. As you say, 
empowering the patients is an enormous part of the 'treatment'.   It 
must be at least ten years since we started to recognise and document 
that treatment includes communication.

At the same time a guide for the appropriate use of medicines is 
extremely helpful, not only to encourage appropriate use of medicine: 
adherence to treatment guidelines helps maintain a reliable supply of 
the medicines by making prediction of quantities much more efficient.

Best wishes

Beverley

Beverley Snell
Senior Fellow
Centre for International Health
Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research & Public Health
GPO Box 2284, Melbourne 3001 Australia
http://www.burnet.internationalhealth.edu.au
Telephone 613 9282 2115 / 9282 2275
Fax 61 3 9282 2144  or  9282 2100
Time zone: 10 hours ahead of GMT.
email <bev@burnet.edu.au>