Institutional Priority-Setting for Novel Drugs and Therapeutics: A Qualitative Systematic Review.

Background: There is a lack of guidance on approaches to formulary management and funding for high-cost drugs and therapeutics by individual healthcare institutions. The objective of this review was to assess institutional approaches to resource allocation for such therapeutics, with a particular focus on paediatric and rare disease populations.

Methods: A search of Embase and MEDLINE was conducted for studies relevant to decision-making for off-formulary, high-cost drugs and therapeutics.

Refusal of animal-derived medical products in a paediatric setting: Ethical issues.

Many medical products that are widely available and commonly used are of animal origin, which can be problematic for those who identify as followers of a particular religion, or have moral commitments or dietary preferences that prohibit or restrict the ingestion of animal products. Given that people are becoming more conscious of the products they ingest, however, we suspect this might be an issue in the foreseeable future, particularly in a multicultural and diverse community like Toronto, Canada. Failure to provide services sensitive to these beliefs and preferences may result in a refusal of medical treatment.