Resources

• “DO NOT CRUSH” LIST – Guide for oral medication that are not to be crushed. From John F. Mitchell, Medication Safety Coordinator, University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers and ISMP
• Community Pharmacy Safety Program – ISMP tools that help community pharmacies and other ambulatory practice settings assess their medication safety practices and develop a medication safety program.
• Error-Prone Abbreviations List - Abbreviations, symbols, and dose designations that are frequently misinterpreted and involved in harmful medication errors. These items should NEVER be used when communicating medical information.
• Throw Away Your Old Medicines Safely – Information for safely throwing away old medicines
• Pathways for Medication Safety – Manuals on strategic planning, risk management, and assessing bedside bar coding readiness that help create a system-based approach to error prevention.
• ISMP-FDA Abbreviations Toolkit – ISMP and FDA are conducting a national campaign to eliminate the use of error-prone abbreviations in all forms of medical communications. This toolkit contains useful resources, including a brochure, print public service ad, and slide set.
• Guidelines - Documents with suggestions from ISMP on improving medication safety practices.

Counterfeit

• FDA Issues Draft Guidance for Industry on Drug Anticounterfeiting – draft guidance on the use of inks, pigments, flavors, and other physical-chemical identifiers (PCIDs) by manufacturers to make drug products more difficult to duplicate by counterfeiters, and to make it easier to identify the genuine version of the drug
• Draft Guidance for Industry on ‘‘Incorporation of Physical-Chemical Identifiers into Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products for Anticounterfeiting,’’ Notice of Availability
• Incorporation of Physical-Chemical Identifiers into Solid Oral Dosage Form Drug Products for Anticounterfeiting (PDF – 79KB) – Draft Guidance Document
• FDA Counterfeit Drug Task Force Reports – Report to respond to this emerging threats of counterfeit. FDA formed a Counterfeit Drug Task Force in July 2003
• Consumer Information to Protect Yourself – Educating consumers about the risks of counterfeit medicine is an important part in the effort to stop counterfeits from entering drug supply chain.
• Reporting of Counterfeit Drug Products
• Counterfeit Alert Network – FDA’s Counterfeit Alert Network is a coalition of health profession and consumer groups.
• Standards Development for Prescription Drug Supply Chain Security – This is FDA ongoing efforts to develop standards for further securing the drug supply chain
• International Efforts to Combat Counterfeit Drugs – The World Health Organization (WHO) has responded to the challenge by creating a global coalition of stakeholders

Sources:
Institute for Safe Medication Practices
United States FDA