In September 2000, Management Sciences for Health was awarded the RPM Plus Program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to work on pharmaceutical management needs throughout the developing world. The program continued the work of the original RPM Project, also funded by USAID from 1992 to 2000, that made significant progress in promoting sustained access to and effective use of essential medicines and critical health commodities in the developing world.
Changing the ways in which providers, patients, and the public use pharmaceuticals and essential health commodities is one of the most complex challenges in health care reform. To address these issues, the RPM Plus Program worked to improve pharmaceutical management worldwide by-
Identifying and addressing the root causes of poor access, ineffective supply, and inappropriate use of essential health commodities
Designing and applying tools to understand medicine use behaviors
Providing technical guidance and assisting in strategy development and program implementation
Training local health care staff to improve the efficiency of health systems
Supporting operations and applied research
Working with policymakers, researchers, managers, and providers in the public and private sectors to implement new and proven interventions
RPM Plus based its work on objective data that is used to-
Help formulate policy decisions
Link pharmaceutical management to related health-sector reforms
Leverage resources through improved donor coordination
Develop the capacity of local institutions to implement new and proven interventions
RPM Plus worked in more than 20 developing countries in four regions to carry out these objectives–
The follow on to RPM Plus - Strengthening Pharmaceutical Systems (SPS) Program - began in 2007 and is also funded by USAID. More information can be found out about it here.
