P & T Committee interview: Promoting rational drug use

In this exclusive Hospital Formulary interview, Thomas K. Hunt, MD, and Eric T. Herfindal, PharmD, chairman and secretary of the P & T Committee at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, discuss how their Committee has evolved over the years. In a highly specialized medical center like UCSF, the P & T Committee has become the liaison between quality assurance and the medical staff. A diverse patient population necessitates a broad spectrum of agents, although restriction policies are common in order to minimize the spread of resistance or inappropriate use of drugs. Because of ongoing investigational drug research--including AIDS-related treatments--use of expensive, genetically-derived agents is often justified by the P & T Committee, in what Drs. Hunt and Herfindal describe as "million-dollar decisions."