Drug information services Drug and Poison information Center, Sources of drug information Computerized services, and the storage and retrieval of information.

1. Drug Information Services
Mr. Ravinandan A P
Asst. Prof.
Department of Pharmacy Practice
Sree Siddaganga College of Pharmacy
Tumkur, Karnataka

2. Presentation Outlines……
1. Definition
2. Reason for drug information centre?
3. Drug and Poison information center,
4. Sources of drug information
5. Computerized services,
6. Storage and retrieval of information.

3. Definition
“The integration of locating, analyzing,
applying and communicating information
about drugs, usually for use by the
person in the decision making role in
patient management”
In simple, giving information
about drug to the requesters
like doctors, nurses,
pharmacist and patients and
public

4. Definition
“It is a current, critically examined,
relevant data about drugs and drug use
in a given patient or situation”
– Current information
– Critically examined information
– Relevant information

5. Goal
“Pharmacists to play a role as drug
consultants”

6. Why Drug Information ?
To meet an indicated demand from
health professionals
To support appropriate, cost effective
drug use
Enhance the quality of patient care
Finally improve patient medical
conditions

7. Need of drug information
• The number of drugs in the international market has
increased very much
• The newer drugs are generally more potent &
selective, and formulations becoming increasingly
complex
• The literature on drugs has also expanded and
covers a wide range of information
• To introduce a new drug into the practice, the
professionals need to evaluate the given
information.
• A simple, quick reference to a pharmacopoeia or
formulary is no longer sufficient.

8. Providers of Drug
Information
Who are they ?
• Knowledgeable about data storage and
recovery methods includes
Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology
• Able to objectively evaluate scientific
literature

9. Providers of Drug
Information
• Able to apply information to the specific
patient situation
• An effective communicator with patients,
health care professionals, administrators
and the media

10. Drug Information (DI)
“A Fundamental Role For
All Pharmacists”

11. Drug Information Center
(DIC)
• A source of selected complete DI for
health care professionals
• Stored information is retrieved,
selected, evaluated and disseminated
in response to specific questions

13. Drug Information Specialist
“perceives, assesses and evaluates
drug information needs and
retrieves, evaluates, communicates
and applies data from the published
literature and other sources as an
integral part of pharmaceutical
care”

14. Drug Information Resources
There are three sources
1. Primary (Journals)
2. Secondary (Indexing & Abstracting
Services)
3. Tertiary (Text Books)

15. Primary Sources
Advantages
• Provide the most current information
• Share opinion with other health
professionals
• Keeps abreast of professional news
• Keeps up with the new developments in
pathophysiology, diagnostic agents and
therapeutic regimen

16. Primary Sources
Limitations / disadvantages
• No guarantee of accuracy
• Inadequacy of articles are common

17. Secondary Sources
Advantages
• Valuable tools for quick and selective
screening of the primary literature for
specific information, data, citation and
articles
• Provide sufficient information to serve as
references for answering drug
information requests

18. Secondary Sources
Limitations
• Reviews a finite number of journals
• Usually describe only articles and
clinical studies
• Abstracts are generally
interpretations

19. Secondary Sources
Examples
1. Micromedex
2. Lexicomp drug database
3. Medline
4. Clinalert
5. Drugs in Use
6. Drugdex
7. Index Medicus
8. Inpharma
9. IPA [International Pharmaceutical
Abstracts]

20. Tertiary Sources
Advantages
• Provide easy and convenient access to a
broad spectrum of related topics
• Background information on drugs and
diseases available
Examples:
• Pharmacology by K D Tripathi
• Pharmacology by Rang & Dale
• Pharmacology by Goodman &
Gilman

21. Tertiary Sources
Limitations
• Gap between recent developments and
actual publication of books
• Omission of pertinent data
• Misinterpretation of literature
possible

22. Internet
• Vast amount of unregulated health care
information
• Offers both free and pay-per-view
access
• Information is accumulating at a
tremendous pace
• Planned search is more productive than
simply browsing or surfing

23. Internet
Limitations
• Relatively slow speed of retrieval
• Lack of control over internet content
• Essential to evaluate any facts
critically

25. Drug Information in India
• There are no research based periodic
drugs and therapeutics information
leaflets available in India
• Pharmaceutical marketing - major
source of DI

26. Threats to Drug Information
• Information super high way
• Easier access to medical information
• Information retrieval by physicians “at
the point of care”

27. Future
All pharmacists must be effective drug information
providers regardless of their practice
Drugs and Therapeutic Information Service
Training and evaluation skills of DI Pharmacist needs
to be high lighted
Start publishing evaluated medical information on
the internet
Assume bigger role in guiding healthcare
professionals in the most effective use of the
information sources

28. Computerized services
• Computers are useful for getting the complete drug
information which is used to satisfy the queries by
patients about toxicology, adverse drug reactions,
and drug-drug and drug-food interactions.
• The drug information about pharmacological
actions, adverse effects, toxicity, drug interactions
etc. is necessary for pharmacist and this search has
been simplified by the use of computers.

29. Drug information storage and
retrieval system
• For retrieval of medical information
international data banks are available,
example includes:
• Micromedex
• Lexicomp drug information software
• Excerpt medial
• MEDLARS
• Bitnet
• Biosis
• Ama/net

30. Poison information center
(PIC)
• Poison information: Definition
• Provision of information regarding the
identification and treatment aspects related
to poisoning with any compound

31. Reason for establishing PIC
• To end accidental poisoning deaths
• To provide rapid access to information
valuable in assessing & treating the
poisoning
• To assist with poison prevention

32. Functions
• Assess and make treatment recommendations
during poisonings
• Provide public and professional educational
programs
• Collect & analyze the data on poisoning

33. GOALS
• To provide comprehensive, accurate
and timely information to their
customers / clients / requesters.
• To enhance the medical care of patients
Drug Information Center also exist with
same goals as Poison Information
center

34. Difference between DIC & PIC
DIC PIC
Clientele Health Care Professionals
(HCP) (only 10% from public)
PIC -- Public (88%)
Call volume < 7 calls /day 103 calls/day/regional center
(range: 33 to 213)
Administration
difference
Hours of operation
9 AM to 5 PM on
weekdays
24 hours a day year round
Cost Less expensive More expensive
Staffing Pharmacist, Less number Pharmacist / Physician / Nurse,
More number
Call complexity Less complex More complex
References Less number of references More number of references
d) Procedural
difference
i) Response time
Average 15 to 30 minutes
(may extend to days)
Immediate response (average
time - 5 minutes)

35. Thank You