Course Aim This educational session provides an overview of drug utilisation (DU) research and presents essential methods used. It will be based on the real-world conduct of drug utilisation studies, with specific examples to provide participants with an 'introductory working knowledge' of drug utilisation research. The session includes interaction with participants, question and answer sessions, and discussion during and at the end of each presentation. The session will introduce the participants to: o Description of the theoretical framework and practical applications of DU research; o Classification systems and methods used in DU research oUse of various designs, data sources and epidemiological methods in DU research 

Requisites Statement Entry level course. This course is targeted at: (1) New members of the DUR / health services research (HSR) Special Interest Group (SIG) and graduate students new to DUR/HSR; (2) Those interested in drug utilisation research who need an overview of the area; (3) Those interested in monitoring of medicine use and quality assessment; (4) Those working in health care organisations involved in payment and reimbursement of medicines, medicines policy areas, or planning of health services 

Course Objectives

• To get an overview of DU research within the context of Pharmacoepidemiology, Health Services Research and Public Health 
• To understand fundamental principles for classifying and quantifying DU and to gain understanding of the methodological challenges 
• To achieve basic knowledge and understanding of epidemiological measures of DU and study designs based on individual patient data 
• To describe methodological and policy issues in DU research