Handbook of Pharmaceutical Public Policy
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Book Review Paul Stong, PhD Johnson S.Johnson
FULDA, THOMAS R., AND WERTHEIMER, ALBERT I., EDS. HANDBOOK OF PHARMACEWICAL PUBLIC POLICY. BINGHAMTON, Ny: HAWORTH PRESS, 2007,681PAGES. When I first received this encyclopedic volume, I was impressed by its girth and extensive list of chapter authors and topics. To even attempt to cover so much territory was, to my mind, a noble feat, let alone attempting to coordinate all of the chapter content to ensure that the flow was consistent and the content adequately served. The authors note that this volume is intended for a wide range of audiences, from students to professionals to those making formulary decisions. They felt that such a volume would not only fill a void across all of these constituents but also highlight two issues that have motivated and catalyzed their interests: the rising spending on drugs that themselves are becoming more expensive, and the growing body of research on the role of medications in health care utilization and the associated morbidity attributable to the use of medication. The editors also freely admit that few definitive answers can be suggested to the policy questions raised, since the widely divergent perspectives of the stakeholders often prevent such focus. This lack of focus sometimes came through quite clearly as 1 reviewed these chapters, many
of which are more a wonderful statement of the historical milestones of law, regulation, context, and policy rather than a distillation of what public policy really has come to represent and where it seems to be taking us. We are warned in the foreword about repetition of material between chapters: however, with such a vast territory to be covered, some repetition is difficult to avoid. In many cases, the overlap is confusing and offers no additional insights, and in a couple of cases it is unclear how the chapter itself fits into the volume. The breadth of coverage also leaves room for omissions or lack of depth in places where certain readers may seek more information. Drug safety and pharmacovigilance, perhaps the hottest topics of the last few years, get relatively passing reference and are discussed more in terms of the regulatory history around famous cases (past and current) and less around emerging trends and tools. For example, pharmacoepidemiology and surveillance are virtually overlooked, with little linkage between the regulatory history and the massive changes of the past several years. There is a single chapter on risk management viewed through the eyes of risk minimization, but there was a perfect opportunity to interweave the context around benefit and risk, emerging evaluation guidelines, the NICE approach, interaction between health plans and pharmaceutical researchers around
from dij.sagepub.com at CARLETON UNIV on June 15, 2015 he; Information < J o u n d Downloaded . Vd.42, pp. 65-66,2008 0092-8615/2008
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. copvrighf 0 2008 Drug Infatmalion Association. Inc.
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