{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,22]],"date-time":"2026-06-22T14:20:41Z","timestamp":1782138041322,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":59,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,25]],"date-time":"2025-04-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1745539200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"Background<\/jats:title>Health policy involves decisions at national, state, and local levels to achieve healthcare goals, with medicine policy being a critical component that requires integration and potential reform. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends periodic monitoring and evaluation of the National Medicine Policy (NMP) under the National Health Policy (NHP), ideally every 2 to 3\u202fyears or comprehensively every 4 to 5\u202fyears.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Objectives<\/jats:title>This perspective aims to urge the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Ethiopia to update its national health and medicine policies to address emerging health issues, advancements in medical treatment, and global health agendas. It also aims to initiate a name change for Ethiopia\u2019s \u201cNDP\u201d to \u201cNMP\u201d to focus on medicines for therapeutic purposes while avoiding confusion with the term \u201cdrug.\u201d<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Methods<\/jats:title>A descriptive critical evidence synthesis was used to identify indicators and situations for monitoring, evaluating, and updating national health and medicine policies. The author presented published evidence to support the perspective that Ethiopia\u2019s national health and medicine policies need to be updated.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Results<\/jats:title>Ethiopia\u2019s national health and medicine policies have remained unchanged for over three decades, despite their critical role in guiding healthcare decision-making and reflecting political commitment to advancing healthcare goals through regular monitoring and evaluation. This underscores an urgent need to update these policies and periodically monitor and evaluate them at prescribed intervals: every 2 to 3\u202fyears for minor changes or every 4 to 5\u202fyears comprehensively. Additionally, the title \u201cNational Drug Policy (NDP)\u201d should be changed to \u201cNMP\u201d to better reflect its focus on safe, effective, and approved medicines for healthcare, while avoiding negative associations with the general term \u201cdrugs\u201d.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>Conclusion<\/jats:title>Given the dynamic nature of the health and pharmaceutical sectors, it is crucial for Ethiopia to urgently update the NHP and NMP and change the NDP title to \u201cNMP\u201d to eliminate ambiguity, emphasize approved medicines, and align with global best practices.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1533710","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,25]],"date-time":"2025-04-25T15:34:44Z","timestamp":1745595284000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["The need to update Ethiopia\u2019s national health and medicine policies: essential tools for informed decision-making in healthcare and the pharmaceutical sectors"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Ewunetie Mekashaw","family":"Bayked","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","volume-title":"Strengthening primary health care systems to increase effective coverage and improve health outcomes in Ethiopia","author":"Annis","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref2","first-page":"279","article-title":"Reviewing Ethiopia\u2019s health system development","volume":"52","author":"Wamai","year":"2009","journal-title":"Japan Med Assoc J"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100016","DOI":"10.1016\/j.hpopen.2020.100016","article-title":"Health policy triangle framework: narrative review of the recent literature","volume":"1","author":"O'Brien","year":"2020","journal-title":"Health Policy Open"},{"key":"ref4","first-page":"3","volume-title":"Introduction, How to develop and implement a national drug policy","year":"2001"},{"key":"ref5","first-page":"4.1","volume-title":"National medicine policy, MDS-3: Managing access to medicines and health technologies","year":"2012"},{"key":"ref6","first-page":"77","volume-title":"Monitoring and evaluation, How to develop and implement a national drug policy","year":"2001"},{"key":"ref7","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Capacity development resource guide: Policy monitoring","year":"2014"},{"key":"ref8","first-page":"11","volume-title":"The national drug policy process, how to develop and implement a national drug policy","year":"2001"},{"key":"ref9","first-page":"1","volume-title":"Introduction, indicators for monitoring national drug policies: a practical manual","year":"1999"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1186\/1472-698X-5-5","article-title":"Monitoring of National Drug Policy (NDP) and its standardized indicators; 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