Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf
Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf
Dictionary of Evidence-based Medicine.pdf
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<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