Role of clinical patient- reported outcome and medico economic studies in the public hospital drug formulary decision making process: result of an european survey

Context:Over the past 20 years, drug information has grown rapidly, but little is known of its actual use in hospital decision-making.Objective:To describe the role of clinical studies (CS), patient-reported outcome studies (PROS) and medico-economic studies (MES) in public hospital drug formulary decision-making.Methods:A postal survey was conducted in 400 randomly selected public hospitals stratified by country (France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and profession (doctor or pharmacist).Results:The participation rate was 78% (143 doctors and 169 pharmacists), and the response rate 44%. Responders were generally interested in CS (86%), PROS (71%) and MES (71%). They reported high but unmet expectations concerning information available on PROS and MES, the methodology of these studies and interpretation of the results.Conclusions:To increase the impact of PROS and MES, we suggest training decision-makers in the study methodology and provide them with support of health and economic experts.