Using prescribing activity comparators to change medicines use in secondary care

3In this paper we will show how one of these tools (proportion of medicines use within a therapeutic group) can be applied in practice.We will also show how these data can be used to bring about change in medicines use in secondary care to that are economically advantageous and that changes achieved are sustainable. Proton pump inhibitors were chosen for this study since this therapeutic group had been identified by NHS West Midlands as an area where there could be an improvement in primary care cost effective prescribing. The components of this that were thought to be most easily supported by secondary care were simple formulation switches of lansoprazole and omeprazole tablets to capsules. At the time, the capsule formulations were 75 per cent cheaper than tablets in primary care. 6