Drug utilisation in a public health perspective: Establishing a national prescription register in Norway

Abstract

ABSTRACT

No information about drug use at an individual level is available from the present Norwegian wholesale

statistics on drugs, i.e. who are using the medicines, for how long and in which doses. A new kind of

statistics is needed to focus on and analyse the use of medications from a public health perspective and

to evaluate other aspects of public health in relation to drug expenditures. To meet this need, the Ministry

of Health and Social Affairs has decided to establish a new national register based on computerised

prescriptions from all the pharmacies in Norway. The initiative to establish a more detailed drug

statistics came partly in response to changes in the infrastructure of the Norwegian Drug Market, which

started when Norway became a member of European Economic Association (EEA), in 1995. To regulate

and evaluate the impact of a country’s national drug policy with respect to the promotion of the

rational use of drugs, it is vital that the system designed to collect data about the consumption of

medicines is set up at the level of individual patients. This paper will focus on the planning and the

necessary steps to be taken for establishing a national database of drug prescriptions in Norway.