Evaluation of drug consumption and quality of pharmacological therapy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (Italy).

A program for automatic reading of medical prescriptions has been introduced in Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), to control the quality of medical care and the physicians' prescribing methods in office-based medical practice. Data on the prescribing practice of general practitioners, drug consumption and costs are collected, and then general practitioners are confidentially informed, through patient-specific medication profiles, on the number and costs of their prescriptions. The first data often showed inappropriate prescription practice on the part of doctors. Through this program an approach based on quality assurance principles is made possible to improve prescribing practice. Being "peer review" activities, bereft of fiscal or punitive ends, they are more readily acceptable by physicians who feel directly involved in improving the use of drugs, with positive connotations for containing costs.