[e-drug] Information on clinical guidelines (3)

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

E-DRUG: Information on clinical guidelines (3)
----------------------------------------------------

In developing countries the rationale for clinical guidelines applies as described by Mary Hemming. In addition standard clinical or treatment guidelines based on a national essential medicines list are crucial to address issues associated wih safety, affordability, access and necessity. 

To prepare clinical or treatment guidelines 
-  disease patterns are analysed 
-  consideration is given to how the common conditions should be treated in your setting
-  essential medicines are aimed at the best treatment for most of the people 

Ideally, treatment guidelines should be prepared first and the medicines needed will be determined during the process. It is possible to work through the process of disease management from the base level of the health services, through the various referral levels.  Treatment guidelines and lists of drugs can be designed for different levels of programs resulting in uniform or complementary treatment by doctors, health workers and nurses. 

-  The use of guidlines associated with a basic list is not only the most efficient way to use the money that is available, it also provides safe and reliable treatment, and appropriate drugs will always be available;
-  It is a guarantee that products are excluded which haven't been properly evaluated, or are known to be quite dangerous, or which have nothing to do with the needs of the population; it also excludes inappropriate drugs that could be made available by donation;
-  Apart from helping to stop the waste of money on unnecessary drugs or on drugs that are more expensive than equally effective ones, it also makes the recording, storage and distribution much easier.

Beverley Snell
Centre for International Health
Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health
P O Box 2284 Melbourne 8001, Australia
Telephone 61 3 9282 2115
Fax 61 3 9282 2144
email <bev@burnet.edu.au>
Site address:  85 Commercial Road, Melbourne, 3004