A meaningful appeal for community health and the Turkish economy from Abdi İbrahimin its 100thyear:

Use Medications in an Informed Way!

The Turkish pharmaceutical sector leader Abdi İbrahim, has started off a new campaign to increase public awareness on the informed use of medications, which is a subject bearing significance in community health and the Turkish economy. The “Rational Medicine Project” campaign which will be carried out by Abdi İbrahim in its 100th year draws attention to the concept that ‘medications should be used in the period and doses prescribed by the doctor and under the guidance of pharmacists’.

Proceeding in the steps of its mission to serve medicine and mankind, Abdi İbrahim has brought to life the “Rational Medicine Project” campaign in its 100th year. Abdi İbrahim has undertaken responsibility for the “Rational Medicine Project” campaign, the first of which was started by the World Health Organization in 1985 and has since been applied by the Turkish Ministry of Health starting in 1992, to be a contributor in preventing the reflections of medication misuse on community health and the economy.

Some of the stars taking roles in the TV and radio advertisements will be beet, bomb and staple. The advertisements which will use phrases common to our community such as “I’m like a bomb, a beet, a rock or a stapler” to express how one feels when medications are used properly with doctor prescriptions under the guidance of pharmacists and the phrase “swallowed the pill” to express the results; aim to make people laugh while at the same time heightening awareness.

What is the Rational Medicine Project?

The World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in 1985 in Nairobi is accepted as the start of the Rational Medicine Project programs. In Turkey the Rational Medicine Project began through the Ministry Of Health in 1992.

Rational Medicine Project; ‘is the easy provision of the individual use of medications in correspondence to personal clinical findings and characteristics, for an appropriately determined period in appropriate doses’.

Rational Medicine Project looks out for the benefit and the health of the community. In line with this, the first priority is determination of the patient’s problem, in other words doctor diagnosis is required.

In parallel with this, whether, with or without medication, the reliable determination of treatment and if medication is prescribed, the stages of the proper selection, dose and duration for each medication must be followed. Approved and current diagnosis guides should be taken as a basis for all of these stages.

Every single doctor that prescribes a medication, pharmacist that provides the medicine in appropriate conditions and nurse that treats with the medication, shares a responsibility in the achievement of “Rational Medicine Project”.

The Principles of Rational Medicine Project:

• Effectiveness
• Reliability
• Suitability
• Cost
• Relying on Correct Diagnosis
• The correct drug, dose, duration and application after the determination of the appropriate application
• Evaluation of treatment success, side effects and the patient’s adaptation
• Foreseeing drug interactions when multiple medications are prescribed
• Taking into account the realization and affordability of the planned treatment