Especially good for children
This week sees the publication of the British National Formulary for Children (BNF-C) and pharmacists working with children in hospitals and all community pharmacists should expect to be sent a copy shortly. It is a good week
for children who find themselves having to take medicines since the publication
should, if it matches the expectations its publishers have for it, transform
the quality of prescribing for them.
Until now, prescribing for children has been somewhat ad hoc — but
through no fault of prescribers. The vast majority of medicines on the
market are not put into clinical trials involving children — for
obvious ethical reasons. And, although this state of affairs is beginning
to change, with pharmaceutical companies in Europe and the US being given
incentives to study the activity of their products in children, many
medicines, particularly those for rare conditions and diseases, are prescribed
off-licence.
The BNF-C has been put together with input from the parent BNF publishers
(the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and the British Medical Association)
together with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the
Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacists Group. The editors and members of
the formulary committee have searched well beyond the standard sources
of information to include experts in all branches of paediatric medicine.
They have produced what might be described as consensus guidance on what
evidence there is for prescribing particular doses and regimens of drugs.
(See article on p373 (PDF 60K) for more details.)
Knowing this, all health care professionals who either prescribe or dispense
medicines for children can turn to the BNF-C with confidence. Possibly
for the first time in many of their professional lives they have access
to a single authoritative source of information — arguably the
best in the world.
However, the remit of the BNF-C does not stop there. As George Rylance,
chairman of the formulary committee, pointed out at the launch earlier
this week, the existence of the BNF-C feeds into the wider government
strategy for the development of a research network for the use of medicines
in children. The BNF-C will be updated annually, incorporating new evidence
as it becomes available. Moreover, over time, this process will reveal
areas where evidence is poor and, with the concurrent establishment of
the research network, will indicate the gaps where further research should
be undertaken.
And, to echo Dr Rylance’s words, all this is good for prescribers
and especially good for children.
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