Journal of Public Health Policy and Planning

Off label prescribing practice in primary care physicians: A qualitative insight

Joint Event on Healthcare and Health Management & Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery
August 27-28, 2018 | London, UK

Wajiha Iffat, Sadia Shakeel, Shagufta Nesar, Hina Rehman and Muhammad Faisal Khan

Dow University of Health Sciences, Pakistan Hamdard University, Pakistan Jinnah University for Women, Pakistan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts : J Public Health Policy Plann

Abstract:

Context: Despite the pharmaceutical products prescribed for Food and Drug Administration–approved indications, offlabel uses may have deficiency of rigorous scientific scrutiny. Regardless of concerns about patient care and health care expenditure, little is known about the frequency of off-label drug use or the degree of scientific evidence supporting this practice.

Objectives: The current study was conducted to observe the opinion and of label prescribing practices of physicians in Karachi, Pakistan .

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted during Feb- July, 2018 in different health care setups. Health care workers were assessed for prescribing practice of off label prescribing in children by requesting them to fill and submit the survey form. Multivariate analyses were used to identify drugspecific characteristics predictive of increased off-label use.

Results: The current study revealed that physicians often used the practice of off label prescribing in children. Majority of physicians considered that off label prescribing is safe if used with strong scientific research.

Conclusions: Off-label medication use is common in patient care, and most occurs without scientific support. Efforts should be made to scrutinize underevaluated off-label prescribing that compromises patient safety or represents wasteful medication use.

Biography:

Wajiha Iffat is presently working as assistant professor in Faculty of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, Dow college of pharmacy, DUHS. She did her graduation (B.Pharm) and post-graduation degree in pharmacy from University of Karachi. She also holds D.H.M.S degree. She has obtained M.B.A. (marketing) from K.U.B.S, Karachi University in 2010. She has recently obtained her Ph.D. degree in Pharmaceutics, under the supervision of Prof. Harris Shoaib from department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Karachi. She started her professional career by working as production control inspector in Abbott Laboratories (Pak) Ltd. She has also worked as trainer in project “a well-managed GP clinic program” that was launched by IOBM in collaboration with Snofi Aventis. She started her academic career in 2006 as lecturer. She joined Dow college of Pharmacy in 2008. Apart from academic activities, she was actively engaged as quality management system coordinator where her main task was to improve the quality of education system. She has also served as lead auditor and auditor in DUHS. She has also served as focal person in execution of various co-curricular and extra-curricular activities. She has around 50 publications to her credit. Her main research interest includes formulation development and optimization, method development and validation, marketing and management, pharmaco-economics and pharmacy practice. She has attended and presented in seminars and symposiums organized by various academics institution. 

E-mail: wajiha.iffat@duhs.edu.pk

PDF HTML