Drug Formulary App
Introduction
Ministry of Health Medicines Formulary (MOHMF) is a valuable resource for healthcare professionals practicing at Malaysia.
- It provides quick information on indications, dosage, availability and prescribing category.
- Also, it forms the hospital/clinical drug formulary foundation for all government healthcare facilities at Malaysia.
Although the website is a possible solution, there is no official mobile application available yet.
- The official MyFormulary app is now under development.
Self-Driven Initiatives
Thus far, multiple unofficial attempts have been made, first started with My Blue Book by My Pharmacist House (last updated to FUKKM 2016-2), followed with Blue Book (Updated+Brand Name Search) by Apicel (last updated to FUKKM 2020-2).
- Both these applications are no longer updated and removed from App Store.
Self-driven initiatives are then continued by other parties.
- Blue Book + CPG Malaysia under Ice Cream App
- Database last updated to MOHMF 2023-2.
- Pharmacist Magicbook under Pharmacoder
- If there is a privacy concern, you may create an account using fake phone number.
- Database last updated to MOHMF 2023-1.
The Way Forward: Hospital/Clinic Formulary
Till today, most self-driven initiatives have been directed at developing mobile application using latest Ministry of Health Medicines Formulary (MOHMF) database, to maximises the number of potential users. Clearly, there are limitations.
- The timeliness of mobile application database updates requires huge commitment of continuous efforts.
- Not all hospital drugs are listed in MOHMF.
- Not all drugs in MOHMF are available in our hospital/clinic.
The government should initiate a local hospital/clinic drug formulary mobile application to address the limitations of current self-driven initiatives.
- The application should automatically sync with the MOHMF (the backbone database) to ensure the changes in indications, prescribing restrictions, dosing, prescribing categories and precautions are reflected in the local formulary.
- For drugs that are not available in the MOHMF, a separate drug list with detailed indication and dosage information should be created. This would allow individual facilities to activate these medicines into their own formulary if necessary.
- Similarly, the off-label uses can be clearly highlighted too.
- There should be specific remarks section available for each facility to annotate more information, such as
- Formulary status information (prescribing restrictions on department, prescriber or patient basis)
- Notes on local practices or quick info reminders (e.g. prandial advice, cold-chain, counselling points).
- In terms of security, username + password authentication should be required for read-only access, editor or admin user.
Summary
While the development of a government-backed mobile drug formulary is the most pressing need, further research is needed to explore additional functionalities such as drug album, drug interaction checking and real-time updates on drug storages.
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