Data on drug consumption are the basis for appraisal of health care costs (pharmacoeconomic considerations) and the basis for pharmacoepidemiological reflections on expedient prescription. Both types of analysis are one of the cornerstones of rational drug policy. Data on drug prescription possessed by the Insurance Company of the CR are, no doubt, one of the greatest data potentials as regards their volume and details, as well as the low error rate needed for these analyses. The high ratio of refunding of costs of drugs in relation to the total costs of health care and in particular the steady adverse trend of expenditure on drugs in relation to total expenditure on drugs on prescription made us reflect on further non-standard possibilities of prescription control. The idea of the implemented analysis was to test possibilities of further, preferably automatic control of prescription by a reliable programme with easy computing and small demands on time and hardware of available computer technique. With regard to the yet not globally tested analysis of prescription by means of DDD the authors computed data for a three-months period and data comprising the whole year with the aim to rule out the biassing effect of the relatively short period of time (and period of prescription resp.). During the check-up of data our interest was aroused by the relationship of expenditure on drugs in relation to the patient’s diagnosis and the specialty of the attending physician. Therefore these analyses were made for the complete set of prescriptions for 1997 interesting results presented here for discussion. The investigated groups are considered sufficiently representative as the branch office in Hodonín is the 8th largest branch office in the Czech Republic as regards the number of population in the district and the number of insured persons with contracts with about three hundred institutions, three hospitals and more than 20 pharmacies.

        Key words: DDD defined daily dose – analysis of prescription according to DDD – automatic control – expenditure on drugs in relation to the patient’s diagnosis and specialty of the physician