Patent ID: 8065165

Claim:
A method of constructing a formulary, comprising: (a) storing a plurality of pharmaceutical products for access by a computer; (b) storing for access by the computer a plurality of pharmaceutical categories, wherein each pharmaceutical category comprises at least one of: (i) a category definition based on predetermined relational characteristics shared by the plurality of pharmaceutical products; (ii) a therapeutic description; (c) creating a plurality of base formularies comprising the plurality of pharmaceutical products responsive to predetermined criteria, wherein each base formulary comprises at least one pharmaceutical products; (d) creating, using the computer, a new formulary by: (i) defining inclusion rules comprising criteria for accepting coverage of non-formulary pharmaceutical products when present; (ii) selecting at least one of the preexisting base formularies when the selected base formulary's inclusion rules are substantially similar to the desired inclusion rules; (iii) modifying the selected base formulary when additional pharmaceutical products are present by allowing the user to select on the computer the additional pharmaceutical products to be included into the new formulary.