title: Does educational intervention improve doctors' knowledge and perceptions of generic medicines and their generic prescribing rate? A study from Malaysia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of an educational intervention on doctors' knowledge and perceptions towards generic medicines and their generic (international non-proprietary name) prescribing practice.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a single-cohort pre-/post-intervention pilot study. The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Perak, Malaysia. All doctors from the internal medicine department were invited to participate in the educational intervention. The intervention consisted of an interactive lecture, an educational booklet and a drug list. Doctors' knowledge and perceptions were assessed by using a validated questionnaire, while the international non-proprietary name prescribing practice was assessed by screening the prescription before and after the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intervention was effective in improving doctors' knowledge towards bioequivalence, similarity of generic medicines and safety standards required for generic medicine registration (p = 0.034, p = 0.034 and p = 0.022, respectively). In terms of perceptions towards generic medicines, no significant changes were noted (p > 0.05). Similarly, no impact on international non-proprietary name prescribing practice was observed after the intervention (p > 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Doctors had inadequate knowledge and misconceptions about generic medicines before the intervention. Moreover, international non-proprietary name prescribing was not a common practice. However, the educational intervention was only effective in improving doctors' knowledge of generic medicines.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Mohamed Azmi
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hassali
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Department, Hospital TelukIntan, Perak, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Zhi Yen
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Alian A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Alrasheedy
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Social & Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UniversitiSains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Fahad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saleem
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy Department, Hospital TelukIntan, Perak, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Abdul Haniff
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Mohamad Yahaya
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, KingSaudUniversity, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Hisham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aljadhey
keywords: Education; Malaysia; doctor; generic medicine; generic prescribing