Drug Information Resources

Topic 10
 What is a pharmacist? Roles of a pharmacist include:

 A provider 
 A confidant
 A clinician
 A patient advocate
 A drug expert
 Drug information skills are foundational to the

pharmacist being able to perform within each of these
roles
Definition

 Drug information
 The provision of unbiased, well-referenced, and
critically evaluated information on any aspect of
pharmacy practice.
 Key concepts
 Unbiased
 Well-referenced
 Critically evaluated

 Drug Information
 An answer to a question concerning the use,
availability, or application of a pharmaceutical
 Generally concerned with use in a PATIENT
 A request may come from a consumer, a healthcare

professional, or carers and it is vital that this should be
reliable, accurate and up to date.
Drug information may be
Reactive: Information or advice given in

response to questions or enquiries about
medicine.
Proactive: Drug information involves the

preparation of news letters, bulletin, website,
etc in an attempt to educate or raise awareness
of key therapeutic issues.
Activities requiring drug information skill:
 Solving patient specific clinical problem.
 Critical evaluation/ appraisal of literature.
 Effective provision of verbal and written information to the public.
Preparation of bulletins and newsletters.
 Clinical guideline development.
 Drug policy management(e.g. formulary management, drug use evaluation

or audit).
Managing the entry of new drugs into health care.
 Adverse drug reaction/event management.
 Continual professional development.

Drug Information Specialist
Although all pharmacist are responsible for providing drug information,

some pharmacist have chosen to undergo extensive training and
specialization in the field of drug information practice. These
pharmacists are referred to as drug information specialist. They have
- extensive knowledge of drug information resource
- strong literature evaluation skills
- problem solving skill
- expertise in information technology
- effective communicators of verbal and written drug
information
Drug Information Center (DIC)
Formalized center, in an organized health

care setting, with a trained specialist and a
library of drug information sources.
Drug Information Service (DIS)
Same objective and activities as DIC but without a formal center, and
services may be provided by a group of people. DI specialist finds drug
information, interprets it and applies the findings to an individual
patient’s needs. DIS Objectives-
 To provide comprehensive, evidence-based, unbiased information to
health care professionals to optimize pharmaceutical care.
 To teach the skill of efficiently searching the literature, critically
analyzing the information, and accurately communicating the response
to be applied.
 To conduct research for the advancement of drug information and
pharmacy practice.
Skills required
Drug Information Resources
There are three sources of drug information

 Tertiary source
 Secondary source
 Primary sources
 Internet
Primary Sources

 Definition:
 New or innovative research reports that provide
to new knowledge or enhance existing knowledge
 Forums
 Article in a journal
 Abstract
 Component of symposium (poster, lecture)
 Letter to the editor
Primary Sources:
Strengths

 Most up-to-date information available.
 Give information about how another clinician handled a particular

problem.
 Keep up with new developments in pathophysiology, diagnostic agents
and therapeutic regimens.
 Share opinions with other healthcare professionals through letters to
editors.
Primary Sources:
Weaknesses

 Requires evaluation by the reader
 Difficult to search without the use of secondary literature

sources.
 To use effectively, you must have some background
understanding of the subject.
Examples

• Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (Eaton, PA; American Chemical
Society)
• Journal of Natural Products (Washington, DC; American Chemical
Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy)
• Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (Baltimore,
MD; Williams and Wilkins)
• Pharmaceutical Research (New York, NY; Kluwer Academic
Publishers)
Secondary Sources

 Definition:
 A resource that indexes and/or abstracts literature from biomedical

journals
 Two types:
 Bibliographic
 Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), Index Medicus
 Factual/Full Text
 Micromedex

• Secondary literature is created by experts in the subject field.
• These resources are organized to either describe or evaluate the original
primary literature and to provide useful access to this literature.
• Secondary literature consists of review articles, including systematic
reviews and meta-analyses and bibliographic databases, such as
PubMed.
Secondary Sources:
Strengths

 Strengths:
 More timely than tertiary literature, updated more
often
 Easy to search, saves you time
 Provide large spectrum of information on specific
topic.
 Ability to link concepts to perform complex
searches.
Secondary Sources:
Weaknesses

 Generally is not self-contained, must obtain articles
somewhere else
 User must have experience with the database to use
effectively
 The number of journals indexed by each system
depends on the scope of the data base.
 Time Lag
 Cost!!
What is Tertiary Source?
 Provides an introduction to the research literature regarding the

practice of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences.
 It introduces key research findings and accepted concepts.
 It is usually written by clinical or research specialists within the subject

area.
 These resources are particularly useful to the pharmacy professional
and pharmaceutical science graduate students.
 They comprise textbooks, government monographs, encyclopedias, and
other familiar reference works.
Tertiary Source:
Strengths

 Strengths:
 Good general reference
 You get an expert’s view point on the topic
 Background information on drug and disease is

often available
Tertiary Source: Weaknesses
 Weakness:
 Maybe incomplete. Other resources should be used to update or
supplement information obtained from text book.
 Maybe “out-of-date” at the time of publication
 Time Lag
 Reliance upon an evaluation of the literature performed by some one
else
More recent
More comprehensive
In-depth
Internet as Drug Information Resource
• Internet technology provides access to an enormous

volume and range of information that previously was
inaccessible or too poorly organized to be searched easily.
- An internet search may be required for the following:
company specific information, issues currently in the news,
drugs in development, alternative medicine and FDA
regulation.
Internet: Strengths and Weaknesses
 Strengths:
 Most up-to-date information available.
 Cheap and easy access to a huge amount of
information.
 Keep up with new developments in
pathophysiology, diagnostic agents and therapeutic
regimens.
Internet: Strengths and Weaknesses
 Weakness:
 Unlike information published in journal and textbooks,
information obtained from internet is not peer reviewed or
edited before release.
 Information is not well organized.
 There is a large volume of factually incorrect and out of date
information that causes considerable information noise.
Some Internet Basics
Three primary ways to use the internet for Drug

Information:
 Know key websites of value to your practice

 www.ashp.org
 www.guidelines.gov
 www.fda.gov
 www.nih.gov
 Search engines (e.g. Google)
 Search databases (Medline searches)

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Topic 10

 What is a pharmacist? Roles of a pharmacist include:

 Drug information skills are foundational to the

 A request may come from a consumer, a healthcare

Reactive: Information or advice given in

Proactive: Drug information involves the

 Solving patient specific clinical problem.

 Critical evaluation/ appraisal of literature.

 Effective provision of verbal and written information to the public.

Preparation of bulletins and newsletters.

 Clinical guideline development.

 Drug policy management(e.g. formulary management, drug use evaluation

Managing the entry of new drugs into health care.

 Adverse drug reaction/event management.

 Continual professional development.

Although all pharmacist are responsible for providing drug information,

Formalized center, in an organized health

There are three sources of drug information

 Give information about how another clinician handled a particular

 Difficult to search without the use of secondary literature

 A resource that indexes and/or abstracts literature from biomedical

 Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), Index Medicus

 Provides an introduction to the research literature regarding the

 It is usually written by clinical or research specialists within the subject

 Good general reference

 You get an expert’s view point on the topic

 Background information on drug and disease is

• Internet technology provides access to an enormous

Three primary ways to use the internet for Drug

 Know key websites of value to your practice

 Search engines (e.g. Google)

 Search databases (Medline searches)

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