At the end of 2013, nearly one in two French people had a pharmaceutical file opened in one of the 22,300 connected pharmacies, or 98% of the network. A valuable tool for health security.
The pharmaceutical dossier designed to avoid drug interactions is acclaimed by the French. According to an activity report published on Tuesday by the National Order of Pharmacists, in December 2013, more than 30 million patients have already opened a PD. An increase of 2 million new members compared to the 28 million French people who had already opened a case in pharmacies in September 2013. As a result, the DP-Patient is used, on a daily basis, by 22,300 pharmacies (city, mutual and mining) , and 110 million pieces of information are shared, for a total of over 2 million shares per week.
The DP, a valuable professional tool for health security
Faced with this success, at the end of 2013, the Order launched three major innovations: experimental access to PD by hospital practitioners in health establishments, the launch of PD-Ruptures which allows the dissemination of information on ruptures of supply of medicines for human use, and access to information from the DP’s anonymous database, for public health reasons, by health authorities authorized by law. New options that also work.
As proof, between August 26 and October 15, 2013 alone, 539 drug breaks were reported. In addition, in 2013, 58 batch recalls were issued thanks to the DP-recall / withdrawal of batches of drugs.
Regarding the DP-Health alerts, it was activated 24 times during the year. It allows a health alert, in particular DGS-Urgent, to be broadcast in a few minutes to all (or part of) city pharmacies or health establishments connected to the DP, in metropolitan France or in the overseas departments, 24 hours a day. and 7 days a week.
DP-Health monitoring for health authorities
In addition, in addition to other databases, the anonymous database also makes it possible to strengthen the possibilities of real-time health monitoring. The National Order of Pharmacists indicates that it was also used on several occasions by the authorities in 2013: contraceptive drugs, Furosemide crisis management, evolution of the situation of thyroid hormone shortage …
The future of the Pharmaceutical File
In addition, for the Order, this tool could also in the future be useful in monitoring vaccinations in order to improve coverage. Thus, contacts continued throughout 2013 between the institution and the Ministry in charge of health. A decree is expected to increase the retention period of data in the PD to 21 years for vaccines.
Finally, the mechanism could render valuable services in the fight against falsified medicines.
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