News New Who Guidelines to Improve Use of Medicines for Children | New Who Guidelines to Improve Use of Medicines for Children |
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In 2007, WHO celebrated the 30th anniversary of the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines. After reviewing the progress over the years gone by, it was noted that there was a need for more medicines specifically developed and tested for use in children. In December of that same year, the “Make Medicines child size” campaign was launched to raise awareness of the issue among policy makers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, researchers, healthcare professionals and the public.
Each year 8.8 million children under five die (2008 data). Many of these deaths are caused by diseases which could be avoided with the use of safe essential medicines formulated appropriately for children. These include diarrhoea and pneumonia as well as conditions such as severe bacterial infections in newborns. According to Dr. Hans Hogerzeil, Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies at WHO, "To be effective, medicines must be carefully chosen and the dose adjusted to suit the age, weight and needs of children; without a global guide, many health-care professionals have had to prescribe medicines based on very limited evidence". RioMed’s Cellma offers the support all healthcare professionals need to adhere to the WHO Formulary for Children. From patient administration to assessment and diagnosis, Cellma provides a structure that ensures that all the necessary patient data is recorded and can be used in such a way that optimal and appropriate care is administered in a timely manner.
“The new Formulary is based on the best global evidence available as to which medicines should be used to treat specific conditions, how they should be administered and in what dose. Accurate dosing of medicines for use in children is essential, particularly those between 0-12 months. A dosing error in a child this small can have devastating results. The Formulary will help health-care providers prescribe the right medicine, in the right formulation and the right dose. It also highlights what precautions to take, what adverse reactions may need to be monitored, and what kind of interactions may occur if the patient is taking other medications.” Cellma’s pharmacy and prescribing module would cohesively facilitate the process of administering accurate medications in proper dosages. Cellma uses dm&d lists, mapped to SNOMED CT codes to populate its prescribing module. Prescriptions are created from predefined formulary lists, which are integrated with stock control. With full integration with EPR, monitoring of patient’s response to treatment is made easy and simple. To view the full formulary: WHO Model Formulary for Children For full report: New WHO Guidelines to Improve the Use of Medicines for Children
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 July 2010 ) |