Patients admitted from the emergency department to a general internal medicine ward by 1 of 2 preselected medical teams were identified the morning after admission by means of a computerized admission roster. Patients were considered for inclusion if their medication history indicated use of at least 4 regular prescription medications before admission. Patients were excluded [...]

INTRODUCTION Medication errors are thought to account for up to 20% of all adverse reactions experienced in the hospital setting. One common source of medication error occurs on admission, when the health care provider collects information about the patient’s medications before admission and then decides to con­tinue or discontinue these medications during the hospital stay. [...]

Unlike in Canada, where supplies usually arrive within a day of ordering, the maintenance of a sufficient medication inventory in Afghanistan can be challenging. Most orders take a week or more to arrive from Canada, and unforeseen events such as a broken-down plane or an operational need to ship nonmedical supplies more urgently may cause [...]

Operation Athena is the name used for the Canadian Forces’ participation in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. The Role 3 Multination­al Medical Unit (R3 MMU) is the main medical facility in Afghanistan staffed by Canadians; it services a population of more than 14 000 military and civilian personnel of all nationalities. The medical [...]

Medication compliance is a hot topic these days, both in Washington and beyond the Beltway. For example, one of the concerns PBMs have had about a medical data privacy law is that they might not be able to get the kind of patient information they need—from pharmacies or physicians—to run the kind of compliance programs [...]

Most of our readers are working hard in hospitals, managed care organizations, and other settings to reduce the epidemic of medical errors, especially those relating to the delivery of prescription medication. Indeed, volumes have now been written about medical error reduc-tion, and major national organizations are spreading the error-reduction gospel everyday. Progress appears to be [...]

In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (PRISM-2) of interferon | -1a in patients with RRMS, 560 participants were randomly assigned to receive subcutaneous interferon | -1a 22 mcg (n = 189), 44 mcg (n = 184), or placebo (n = 187) three times a week for two years. The mean number of relapses during the [...]