Safe and effective prescribing: A new and important initiative from the PhRMA Foundation

Safe and effective prescribing is a critically important part of the equation for successful medical treatment in today’s health care system. Yet data from the Association of American Colleges cites a lack of sufficient training and resources in safe and effective prescribing in the U.S. medical school curriculum.

That’s why the PhRMA Foundation recently launched its Safe and Effective Prescribing Initiative, which offers free online educational modules on prescribing safety and effectiveness.

While the series is aimed primarily at practitioners-in-training at nursing, pharmacy and medical schools, it has been designed in a way that makes it useful for a wide range of health professionals – including nurses, pharmacists and physicians who are already practicing.

The Safe and Effective Prescribing Initiative features five course modules, which are free and may be accessed from the PhRMA Foundation website. Each module includes a video tutorial led by an expert in prescribing; a self-assessment test; a case study; and a supplemental list of research and resources.

Topics and presenters include:

• Clinically Important Drug Interactions, with Sarah Robertson, PharmD, PharmD/Vertex Pharmaceuticals
• Prescribing Drugs in Neonates, Infants, Children and Adolescents, with John N. van den Anker, M.D., Ph.D., Children’s National Medical Center
• Assessment and Reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions, with Christine Chamberlain, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Pharmacodynamics of Aging, with the late Darrell R. Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D., U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Obstetric Pharmacology, with Catherine M. Stika, M.D., Northwestern University

Our partners in this effort are the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Foundation for the NIH, American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT) and the Reagan-Udall Foundation.

The PhRMA Foundation firmly believes that efficient and safe prescribing requires specialized training. The bottom-line purpose of our new initiative is to better prepare current and future prescribers to maximize drug efficacy, minimize toxicity and strengthen patient safety in the United States. We are confident that this new educational resource can help us achieve this important goal.

We encourage medical, pharmacy and nursing schools, as well as practicing physicians, pharmacists, nurses and others with an interest in prescribing, to utilize this free resource. To access the modules, please visit http://www.phrmafoundation.org/safe-and-effective-prescribing-project/.