Task force countries:  18
Albania, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

Started in 1993, the project is a campaign to encourage the public to seek information that will give them the maximum therapeutic benefit from their medicines.  Pharmacy customers and patients are informed about the importance of gathering relevant information, and encouraged to ask general practitioners and pharmacists basic questions before starting treatment with medicine. The campaign is expected to have an indirect impact on health professionals, who will be faced with questions they will have to answer.

The project document "Questions to ask about your medicines", from 1993, is still valid and now also includes guidelines for QaM campaigns. A wider scope of the project is currently being considered.  Various recommendations have been made.  One is the development of a model for evaluating the project.  Another is the development of a strategy to keep the projects running and enable the project participants to learn from one another and thereby improve the project outcome.

In spring 2000 a twinning programme was set up within the project with financial support from the Soros Foundation and WHO Europe.  So far 8 countries have been involved:  Croatia–Germany, Estonia–Finland, Latvia–Denmark, Czech Republic-Ireland.  Reports are available on request.