Recently, the State Drug Administration announced the third batch of pilot lists for the reform of drug instructions for the elderly and barrier-free, including more than 300 drugs. On October 16, the reporter visited the pharmacy and learned that the first batch of drug instructions for the elderly have been revised and listed, and these "large-character version" and "simplified" drug instructions have brought a lot of convenience to the elderly group.
Instructions for age-appropriate drugs entered the market
The reporter walked into a pharmacy on Chu Street in the downtown area, and many citizens were buying medicines. Ms. Shi, a staff member, found a drug called "Citicoline Sodium Capsule", and she introduced that since the launch of the first batch of the pilot list of drug instructions for aging and barrier-free reform at the end of 2023, some drug instructions have been revised and listed. "Citicoline Sodium Capsules" is one of them.
The reporter opened the drug instruction manual and saw that the instruction manual was marked as a "simplified version", only the words were printed on the front, the font was clear, and the font size was also large, mainly introducing the drug ingredients, characteristics and functional indications and other information. The instruction manual is printed in color, and the important content is set to blue. What's more convenient is that there is also a QR code printed in the upper left corner of the manual, and users can scan the QR code with their mobile phones to view the electronic version of the manual.
"Citicoline capsules are mainly used to treat neurological sequelae caused by head injury or cerebrovascular accident. It is a prescription drug, and we have recently discovered that the drug insert has been revised. Ms. Shi told reporters that the old version of the drug's instructions are very small and have a lot of content, which is not only inconvenient for the elderly, but also for young people.
Ms. Shi said: "Compared with the old and new versions of the instructions for this drug, the new version of the instructions has made a lot of deletions in content. In the old version of the instructions, there are some professional contents that have little to do with the patients themselves, such as the English name of the drug, the chemical structure, etc., which are deleted in the new version of the instructions. ”
The font size is larger, the content is simplified, and you can see it clearly without glasses
What convenience does the revised drug package insert bring to the public? In a pharmacy on Weishanhu Road in Sucheng District, Mr. Xu, an elderly man who was buying medicines, said: "In the past, the font of the drug instructions was too small to read clearly, but now, the large-print version of the instructions allows us to easily understand the medication methods and precautions for those with presbyopia." ”
"The new version of the drug instructions is big, my dad can understand how to take the medicine himself, and we are more at ease as children." Ms. Lu, a citizen, said that she noticed that the instructions of some drugs were not only enlarged, but also simplified, so that people could see them at a glance. And in addition to the elderly, the young people no longer have to struggle to understand some technical terms.
"Our staff used to spend a lot of time interpreting complex drug inserts for the elderly, but now we have a clear and easy-to-understand version, which reduces our workload and improves the quality and efficiency of our services." Ms. Xu, a staff member of the store, told reporters that in order to facilitate the elderly to check the drug instructions, reading glasses and magnifying glasses are often hung on one side of the medicine shelf. Seniors who want to read the package inserts carefully can borrow these tools free of charge.
"There are a limited number of 'large-character version' and 'simplified' drug instructions on the market, and we hope that there will be more drug instructions for aging upgrades in the future, and we will also actively introduce more drugs that meet the requirements of aging to provide you with more high-quality and convenient drug services." Ms. Xu said.
The "large-print version" of the drug instructions has received a lot of praise
"The font and paper of this manual have become larger, which is very convenient for us seniors." Mr. Shen is 62 years old, and every time he gets a medicine he has never seen before, he checks the drug instructions. In his impression, most of the manuals are compressing the paper and font size in different ways. Once, when he read the instructions of a blood pressure medication, he couldn't see clearly with his glasses, and he was holding a magnifying glass. Therefore, Mr. Shen was very pleased with such a change in the drug instructions.
Referring to the habit of reading drug instructions, Mr. Shen told reporters that it is important to read drug instructions carefully, and he was sent to the hospital for rescue because he did not read the drug instructions carefully when he was young. He had been on antibiotics for a few days for a bacterial infection, and on the third day after stopping the medication, he drank alcohol, resulting in severe allergies. Since then, every time he gets a medicine he has never seen before, he will check the drug instructions.
"The original manual has a lot of words and small words, and the current manual doesn't look hard and very intimate!" Mr. Zheng, a citizen who lives in Susu Industrial Park, said that his father's long-term antihypertensive drug was originally printed with words on the front and back of the drug instructions, but now the instructions for this drug are only half the size of the previous one, the number of words is much less, and the font size has become twice as large as before. Mr. Zheng said that every family has an elderly person, and everyone will grow old, and many pharmaceutical companies "enlarge" and "simplify" the instructions as an image expression of respecting and loving the elderly.
The reporter learned that in order to solve the problem of "unclear" drug instructions, the State Drug Administration will launch a pilot project for the reform of drug instructions for the elderly and barrier-free in October 2023, and determine Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hunan, Guangdong, Shaanxi and other provinces (cities) as pilot areas. Up to now, 23 kinds of drugs in Jiangsu Province have completed the registration of the instructions for aging, of which 3 kinds of drugs have been put on the market for the purpose of aging.