Malaysian Statistics on Medicines

Malaysian Statistics on Medicines (MSOM) is a national-level medicine utilization report published by the Pharmaceutical Services Programme, Ministry of Health. The MSOM reports total medicine used in the country as well the pattern and trends of utilization. It is produced to support the implementation and monitoring of the National Medicines Policy (DUNas) that aims to ensure the citizens receive equitable access to safe, effective, affordable and quality medicines, and promote the rational use of medicines to improve the health of all Malaysians.

The MSOM is a national scale project that involves collecting data from multiple sources and requires involvement of various stakeholders. The first MSOM report was produced in 2006. It was originally known as the National Medicines Use Survey (NMUS) when ‘survey’ method was used to collect part of the data. The data collection methodology has been further developed over time with the aim to improve completeness and accuracy of the report. For the latest MSOM reports, the data collection and review method was further enhanced by means of a smart partnership with a private entity.

PURPOSE OF MSOM

The availability of quality, comprehensive and reliable medicine utilization information is important in assessing the actual pattern of medicine use at various level of the healthcare system in Malaysia. Thus, the MSOM report is useful for the following purposes:

  • Estimating total medicines utilization and explores changes in the utilization pattern for different types of medicines used for the treatment of a certain disease.
  • Estimating the number of users for each type of medicine.
  • Estimating the level of care (whether a medicine is overused or underused) for a disease of known prevalence.
  • Assessing the seriousness of an adverse drug reaction reported through the pharmacovigilance system, by comparing the information to the estimated number of patients exposed to the medicine.
  • Providing a rough estimate of disease prevalence.
  • Estimating medication expenses.
  • Monitoring the effects of interventions or policy revisions that affect medicines utilization such as medicine promotions, patient education, formulary listing, medicine payment schemes and so on.

 

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