A Tribute to a Pionner in Drug Utilization Reserch: Mu dr. Ludvík Štika

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This symposium is to honour a pioneer implementing drug utilization studies in health care to improve rational use of drugs. When I met Ludvík Štika at the first pharmaceutical conference arranged in Czechoslovakia in Prague 1973 he was able to present incidence and prevalence of prescriptions purchased at pharmacies in defined populations in two districts of Prague. Parallel with a similar development in the county of Jämtland, Sweden, these data were unique at that time. He contributed with many innovative studies that will be highlighted. He later became involved in the WHO-Drug Utilization Research Group representing Czechoslovakia. Later he was a co-founding member of the EuroDURG. His academic career was adversely influenced by the communist era. Even in these unfavourable conditions he showed his excellency. He excelled to that extent that he became one of the founders of an important branch of clinical pharmacology. This consists of collecting valid data about drug consumption and providing feed-back to the level of pharmacological treatment, of its costs and other impacts. Despite these unfavourable conditions he managed to publish his work in a series of national and international magazines and books, and he became well-known internationally. His last appointment was the position of the national co-ordinator in the ESAC (European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption) project for the Czech Republic. He also worked as a neurologist in 6th Prague district for 30 years. He died in 2004 at the age of 79. As stated by prof. MUDr. Helena Rašková, DrSc in the obituary: Ludvík Štika is a personality that did work “Ni zisk či slávu” neither for glory, nor for profit. And he significantly influenced our discipline of clinical pharmacology.