健全管制藥品制度及管理研究--線上管制藥品處方藥監測系統研究

In recent years, the health and societal problems caused by the misuse or abuse of prescription use has become a serious public health and public safety issue worldwide. Developed countries in the world, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, have developed Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) to reduce drug diversion and abuse of controlled prescription drugs. The main goal of the PDMPs is to allow prescribing physicians and dispensing pharmacists to inquire the patient’s recent prescription history at other health care facilities or from other physicians prior to prescribing and dispensing, so that duplicate prescriptions can be avoided. Its functions include: (1) providing more patient information to facilitate medical care, (2) providing prompt information of the epidemic of prescription drug abuse, (3) providing a basis for investigations of prescription drug diversion and insurance fraud. In Taiwan, while controlled drugs are already regulated with licensure and tracking requirements with a management information system to trace the total use of controlled drugs by licencee, there is no effective, real-time monitoring of the prescribing behaviors of individual physicians or prescription use of patients. Despite the availability of the National Health Insurance Database, information of controlled drugs from cash transactions is not available in the database, and the overuse of prescription drugs remain prevalent. In this project, the research team will conduct a systematic review of the US and Canada experience of PDMPs, and conduct a case study research to assess the feasibility of constructing an online PDMP system for controlled drugs in Taiwan, as well as the possibility of integration with medical visits information systems, dispensing information systems, and the National Health Insurance Database. Two focus groups involving experts will be conducted to gather the opinions of various professionals on PDMP implementation, PDMP effectiveness, and additional measures needed to facilitate PDMP implementation. In addition, this project will discuss measures to encourage pharmacy personnel to upload prescription information, so that the benefits of a PDMP system can be maximized, and the social problems associated with prescription drug abuse can be effectively ameliorated.