Developed by: World Health Organization (WHO)

Objective: To support the collection, analysis and use of existing pharmaceutical sector data, which are crucial for informing medicine policy and advocacy work.

Output: Collated data on a country's pharmaceutical sector in a standardised table format used to generate a country profile.

Additional information: The pharmaceutical country profile includes indicators to measure key aspects of a country's pharmaceutical situation and systematically monitor the progress of efforts to improve access to essential medicines. The information is categorised in 8 sections: (1) Health and demographic data, (2) Health services, (3) Policy issues, (4) Regulation, (5) Medicines financing, (6) Supply of pharmaceuticals, (7) Rational use of medicines, and (8) Household surveys. The indicators have been divided into two categories, namely "core" (most important) and "supplementary" (useful if available). This comprehensive assessment also helps the user determine which support activities are most appropriate for each country and evaluate the impact of interventions over time. There is a 50-60% overlap with the MeTA pharmaceutical sector scan and replaces the WHO level I survey.

Process and resources:

• A national coordinator needs to be identified nominated by countries.
• Data collection is conducted using a user-friendly electronic questionnaire that includes a glossary.
• To facilitate the work of national counterparts, the questionnaires will be pre-filled using all data available at WHO HQ before being sent out to countries.

Link to the tool:
http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/coordination/coordination_assessment/en/index.html

Country Experience: A data collection tool and a comprehensive glossary have been developed with support from global experts and country stakeholders. Both are currently being piloted in 13 countries. Three countries (Argentina, Armenia and Austria) have finalised their profiles and their reports can be downloaded from:
http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/coordination/coordination_assessment/en/index1.html