Producing National Drug and Therapeutic Information - The Malawi Approach to Developing Standard Treatment Guidelines: MSTG 2 (Second edition): Use in drug utilisation and prescription monitoring

Producing National Drug and Therapeutic Information - The Malawi Approach to Developing Standard Treatment Guidelines
(1994; 49 pages)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
	Uses and benefits of Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs)
	Reasons for developing the MSTG
MSTG 1 (First edition)
	Activities prior to development of MSTG 1
	Decision to develop MSTG
	Preparation
	Printing
	Distribution
		Methods of distribution
	Introducing the guidelines
MSTG 2 (Second edition)
	Review of MSTG 1 and development of MSTG 2
	Editing and preparation for printing
	Printing
	Distribution
	Introducing the new edition
		Prescriber training workshops
	Feedback
	Use in drug utilisation and prescription monitoring
	Future plans
		Training workshops
		Development of curricula for formal health training courses
		Review of MSTG 2 and preparation of the next edition
Appendices
	Appendix 1 - Background publications used in preparation of the guidelines
	Appendix 2 - Sample page of MSTG 1 (December 1988) first draft
	Appendix 3 - Sample page of MSTG 1 (May 1989) second draft
	Appendix 4 - Sample page of MSTG 1 (July 1989) third draft
	Appendix 5 - Sample page of MSTG 1 (November 1990) final version
	Appendix 6 - Technical notes on MSTG 1
	Appendix 7 - Cover page of MSTG 1
	Appendix 8 - Modification form for MSTG 1
	Appendix 9 - Sample page of MSTG 2 (July 1993) final version
	Appendix 10 - Technical notes on MSTG 2
	Appendix 11 - Cover page of MSTG 2
	Appendix 12 - Comparison table for MSTG 1 and MSTG 2
	Appendix 13 - District training workshops to introduce MSTG 2 and MPC

Use in drug utilisation and prescription monitoring

The MSTG is being used to compare actual prescribing practices with recommended treatment regimes, together with management tools which have been developed for the purpose and which are currently being pilot-tested for possible national introduction. These include:

• Out-patient registers: this records details of patients, diagnoses and treatments prescribed. Evaluation of the degree of compliance of prescribers with recommended treatments is made by comparison with MSTG guidelines. It is expected that such registers would be routinely used and would provide detailed information on patient attendances, treatment practices and morbidity patterns.

• Duplicate prescription pads: these are an alternative form of collecting the same types of information, in which carbon copies of each prescription are made and retained for subsequent analysis. These would not be used routinely, but would be used when required to identify problem areas in prescribing. District level or even health unit specific training interventions would then be prioritised and implemented to focus on the specific problems exposed.