Irish Medicines Formulary Edition 4 Now Published

Main Category: Medical Students / Training
Also Included In: Pharmacy / Pharmacist;  Public Health
Article Date: 11 Aug 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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The Irish Medicines Formulary (IMF), Edition 4, has now been published and distributed to registered GPs in fulltime practice in Ireland.

Since it was first published in February 2007, IMF continues to grow to meet the needs of Irish healthcare professionals. A major innovation in Edition 4 is the inclusion of Illness Definitions. Every drug in IMF Edition 4 has a licensed indication and each indication now carries a concise medical definition, providing additional information for medical students, pharmacists and nursing professionals.

Another new addition to IMF Edition 4 is the inclusion by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) of their Quality Defect Report Card (green card) in addition to the IMB Adverse Event Report Cards (yellow cards). The Quality Defect Report card is of particular importance to pharmacists who either quality detect defects when dispensing, or when patients return defective products.

IMF Edition 4 also now includes a page in the Clinical Utilities section explaining the pricing mechanism for prescription drugs in Ireland whether reimbursed or for private patients, and outlines the distribution chain and the various price points (ex-factory, wholesale, trade, retail). This section also contains treatment guidelines and algorithms, herbal drug interaction tables, a body-surface area calculator and CVS risk charts.

2789 drug prices have been revised in IMF Edition 4 to ensure users have access to meaningful practical prices (PCRS-reimbursed price or, for non-reimbursed products, trade price). Feedback from practicing GPs confirmed that these price points were more useful than ex-factory pricing. Finally, over 700 SPCs (Summary of Product Characteristics), new or with a new revision date, were reviewed resulting in just over 1300 revisions being made to the IMF database since Edition 3.

IMF Edition 4 can be purchased online at www.formulary.ie or by contacting the publisher, Meridian Ireland, Tel/Fax: (01)-8390073 or e-mail: formulary@meridianireland.com