title: Good Medical Practice for Drugs. Definition, Guidelines, References, Field of Action and Applications.
abstract: Proper use of drugs can be defined as the use of the right product, in a correct dosage, during an adequate length of time, for a given patient and provided he has no serious side effects. It is virtually impossible, with such a number of drugs, such a number of clinical situations to prescribe adequately without using references or guidelines. References may lead to a unique choice, when the diagnosis is certain and the drug to be given is unique. With a good initial and continuous medical education, doctors can take easily this type of decision. The Summary of Products Characteristics (SPC) helps them; by sticking to this fundamental reference, prescription might be more precise and safe. In a lot of clinical situations the choice between a large numbers of therapeutic strategies necessitates use of a guideline based on scientific knowledge. Finally, a given therapeutic strategy can be as effective as and considerably less expensive than another. In such cases, payers can drive doctors to the prescription of the less expensive strategy. Some diﬃculties are common to all references and guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Hôpital Lariboisière, Paris. Electronic address: jf.bergmann@lrb.aphp.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bergmann
keywords: drugs; good medical practices; guidelines; proper use of drugs; references