Thousand Oaks, CA (September 28, 2005) Medical need in poor nations is a widely discussed issue in the medical and science communities. They refer to an arguable disparity in resources applied as the 10/90 gap, i.e., 10 percent of global health resources are applied to health problems that account for 90 percent of the world's disease burden. The American College of Clinical Pharmacology (ACCP) took on the challenge to improve world health by making clinical pharmacology education more readily available in developing economies and has succeeded by developing and implementing a novel pricing approach, according to an article published in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

In the article, 'Extending Worldwide Clinical Pharmacology Education Through a Pricing Approach', authored by Barbara Ameer, PharmD, MBA, of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School's Department of Medicine in New Jersey, we see that approximately 4 percent of ACCP's current membership base is located in low-income economies. In an effort to reach out to these communities, ACCP implemented an alternative pricing approach that allowed the professional organization to lower the membership fees for international members based on the economic need of their countries. The ACCP adopted the economic country classifications set by the World Bank, which are based on gross national income per capita. The ACCP then put into action a tiered-membership fee policy that reduced fees for citizens residing in low income or lower-middle income countries. The financial burden to the organization was offset by offering electronic access to ACCP publications in place of surface mailing print copies.

Chair of the recently established International Development Committee, Barbara Ameer states the working goal of the group is "to strengthen the capacity of clinical pharmacologists worldwide in pursuit of the College's mission of improving health by optimizing therapeutics."
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Contact: Judy Erickson
Media.Inquiries@sagepub.com
805-410-7720
SAGE Publications
3-Oct-2005

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