e-Drug: Malawi – essential training in safe prescribing

Louisa Alfazema1, David Dewhurst2 and Ross Ward2

1Department of Pharmacy, College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Blantyre, Malawi

2 Learning Technology, College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh EH8 9XD, UK

Background

• Errors in prescribing compromise patient safety

• Medical education may be deficient or inappropriate

• Development of an online formulary of essential drugs available 24/7 may help

eDrug:Edinburgh

• Developed by pharmacology faculty in 2005 and delivered through medical school VLE

• Circa 180 essential drugs– Structure– Clinical uses, doses, routes of administration– Mechanism of action– Contra-indications– Links to quality-assured third-party resources– Links to other Edinburgh teaching resources

e-Drug:Malawi

• Based on e-drug:Edinburgh structurebut…• Tailored to Malawi essential drugs list• 47 drugs removed and 30 added e.g. anti-

malarials, HIV drugs• Some drug categories changed e.g. conditions

expanded, some removed e.g. anti-obesity• Delivered via CoM Curriculum Management

System – accessible 24/7

Future developments

• Adding links to important policy documents• Personalising – add annotation/notes function

so that students can add own notes• Provide links to other useful resources• Evaluation – with medical and pharmacy

students• Develop versions for nurses and clinical

officers

Thank you for your attention

lalfazema@medcol.mwd.dewhurst@ed.ac.uk

r.ward@ed.ac.uk