The first International Conference on Improving the Use of Medicines (ICIUM) was conducted in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1997. RPM Plus contributed to the implementation of the following activities identified during the conference to address the problem of irrational medicines use, especially antimicrobial use, and development of AMR.

1. Identify indicators to study antimicrobial use in hospitals
   
   
2. Hold Drug and Therapeutics Committee (DTC) training course
   
   
3. Implement research initiatives to find successful interventions to improve prescribing and dispensing practices, improve community use of medicines, and develop effective pharmaceutical policies and regulations

The second ICIUM, held in 2004, brought together leading national and international medicines use experts to review progress made toward improving the use of medicines since the first ICIUM. With support from USAID, RPM Plus functioned as one of the major organizers of the conference and supported the attendance of researchers from developing countries who have created evidence-based approaches for improving the use of antimicrobials.

ICIUM 2004 included a full track on containing AMR at international, national, facility, and community levels. AMR experts shared intervention research successes and discussed what more was needed. The AMR recommendations can be found on www.icium.org and have been widely publicized.

• Visit the official ICIUM website