The IAP Pediatric Drug Formulary CDRom and Book, one of IAP President Dr M K C Nair's Presidential Action Plan 2004 and a Project of IAPCMIC (then IAPCMEG), was completed in Dec 2004. All the IAP subchapters submitted the treatment recommendations for various pediatric illnesses pertaining to their respective specialty which has been edited to provide brief, to-the-point guidelines to drug therapy for almost every pediatric disease.

The CDRom and Book were released at the Inaugural Function of XXXXIInd National Conference of IAP - PEDICON 2005 at Kolkata in January 2005. Desktop and Palmtop versions were made available. The CD was searchable for disease wise IAP recommendations for drug therapy of most pediatric illnesses and for every aspect of drug monographs of medications used in pediatric practice with a few brand names chosen randomly. The 1st edition of the book (IAP Pediatric Drug Formulary 2004) was an excellent desk top reference containing 329 pages crammed with all that a doctor needs to know about drug therapy in pediatrics. Going with the times the CD has been stopped and we now have a desktop version.

Quarterly web updates were made available to the users free of cost as the IAP Executive Board considered it as a service to pediatric care in our country. After 75 web updates, the contents of the formulary were very different from the original book and hence, every 3rd year a new hardcopy textbook was released, the latest being the 6th hardcopy edition of the book - IAP Drug Formulary 2024. Along with this a very popular mobile app, Online Desktop and PDA version of the IAP Drug Formulary has been developed. With the development of this new website it is now easier to register and retrieve passwords, download the latest update online (auto updates occur on the mobile app) for the application, search the drug database online on their desktops or mobile phones/PDAs via an internet access (either GPRS enabled or WiFi connected). The search mode for both web and mobile is quick and is sure to be very popular among users all over the world. the quarterly web updates keep the pediatricians, and all health care workers who use the IAP DF, up-to-date regarding evidence based pediatric therapeutics

This voluminous data would be the basis for developing a continuing dialogue on treatment modalities recommended by IAP. The drug monographs for every medication used in pediatrics has been compiled. The brand names for each drug have been limited to 2-3 brands that illustrate the complete uses of each drug.

Dr Jeeson C Unni
Editor-in-chief
IAP Pediatric Drug Formulary