ICIUM 2004 was structured to promote discussion and exchange of ideas so that all attendees could actively take part in generating the main conference products.

Participants discussed medicines issues in six major topic areas:

• International policies and systems
• National policies, systems, and programs
• Hospitals and inpatient care
• Primary care and health providers
• Primary care and the community
• Methodological issues.

A one-hour plenary session opened the exploration of each topic area. Participants then broke into groups to discuss each topic in seven tracks:

• Access to medicines
• Adult health
• Antimicrobial resistance
• HIV/AIDS
• Child health
• Malaria
• Tuberculosis

Each track breakout session lasted for two hours and consisted of presentations followed by at least one hour of general discussion.