title: Implementing the essential medicine concept in the country with the highest GDP per capita in the world.
abstract: Qatar, an oil-exporting country with a population of about 1.7 million, achieved the highest gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the world in 2010. Total health expenditure as a percentage of GDP in 2010 in Qatar was 2.0%, with the government's share at 75% of the total health care budget. Hamad Medical Corporation hospitals and the independent public Qatar Primary Health Care PHC) centres are the main public health care service providers. PHC consists of 24 centres providing a wide range of health services. The PHC medicines list is a subset of the Hamad Medical Corporation medicine list. However, the PHC list of medicines could be improved both in its selection procedures and medicines included to correlate more directly to type of medical services provided by the Qatar PHC system in its different types of centres.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Baqiyatallah Medical Sciences, Tehran, Islamic Republic of lran. majidcheraghali@gmail.com
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Cheraghali
mesh_terms: D059066:Gross Domestic Product; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D017149:Private Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D017150:Public Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D011780:Qatar