In Middle-income country Mongolia pharmacy business is economically booming and therefor also the number of pharmacies and pharmacists. But is the health of the Mongolians themselves also booming?
After a personal working visit the following conclusions could be made:
- Pharmacies function primarly as a logistic service for the general public and just use ICT for logistics and financial administration.
- Professional patient pharmaceutical counseling (e.g. controls on dosage, interactions, contra-indications) is very, very limited.
- Both policy makers, academia as well as pharmaceutical professionals realise that progress (both in education as well as ICT-tools) is necessary in the theme of Medication Safety in order to protect the general public from health risks originating from medication .
Mongolia is a place where GIMS can/should be of help.