04.02.2015 Views

Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf

Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf

Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

<strong>Dictionary</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Evidence</strong>-<strong>based</strong> <strong>Medicine</strong> 69<br />

Generic substitution<br />

When drugs lose their patent, manufacturers other than the innovator company<br />

can supply alternative bioequivalent products (generic equivalents).<br />

To reduce drug costs, health care providers and hospitals may permit the<br />

supply <strong>of</strong> such products when prescribers request the innovator's branded<br />

product (generic substitution). In the UK, under the National Health Service,<br />

generic substitution is not allowed in general practice with the emphasis<br />

being placed on generic prescribing instead. When a prescriber orders a<br />

drug generically, then the pharmacist can supply any generic equivalent.<br />

In the hospital service, generic substitution is common but needs to be<br />

agreed on by the appropriate drug and therapeutic committees.<br />

Geometric mean<br />

The geometric mean is the antilogarithm <strong>of</strong> log x where<br />

Any base can be used provided the same base is used for both the log and<br />

antilog steps. The geometric mean is <strong>of</strong>ten used in summarizing pharmacokinetic<br />

data such as the ratio <strong>of</strong> area under the blood concentration-time<br />

curves for the products being compared because <strong>of</strong> their non-normal<br />

distribution.<br />

Geometric series<br />

A geometric series is a sequence <strong>of</strong> numbers in which consecutive terms<br />

differ from each other by a constant ratio r whose modulus is smaller than<br />

one. Such a series <strong>of</strong> n terms can be written as a, ar 2 , ar 2 , ar 3 ..., ar"- 1 where<br />

I r I

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!