Drug Information Resources Flashcards
Dr. Amaeze
What is Drug Information?
- DI is current, critically examined, relevant data about drugs and drug use in a given patient or population in a particular situation.
- It may also be defined as data or knowledge about drugs and their safe, effective, and appropriate use.
It includes details about pharmacology, indications and contraindications, dosages and administration, adverse effects and drug interactions, monitoring parameters, etc., and other aspects that inform healthcare professionals and patients about how to use a drug optimally.
- It is as defined as the discovery, use and management of information in the use of medications.
Drug information involves the
provision of information for a specific patient only.
True or False?
False.
DI may be patient-specific or developed for a given patient population, such as
developing therapeutic guidelines, communicating a national quality initiative, or coordinating
an adverse drug event reporting and monitoring program.
Mention 5 avenues through which DI can be disseminated to the public.
- Presentations
- Publications
- Newsletters
- Websites
- Social Media Coverage
Delivery of DI may be done by the following means ….
- Face-to-face
- By phone
- By email
- Virtually
What is the importance of DI in pharmacy practice?
Pharmacists rely on DI resources to:
- Make decisions in clinical settings
- Answer clinical questions
- Counsel patients
- Ensure prescribe medications are safe and effective in each patient
- Assist healthcare providers in the selection of appropriate therapies, adjustment of dosages for specific populations, prevention of adverse effects and education of patients on proper medication use.
Mention areas of healthcare that continue to necessitate the provision of DI.
- Managed care organisations
- The pharmaceutical industry
- Medical and specialty care clinics
- Scientific writing and medical communication companies
- The insurance industry
Changes within health care are driving increased opportunities for providing DI. These changes include:
- National efforts to expand
access to care while reducing healthcare costs - The rise in the self-care movement and,
- The integration of new health information technologies (such as electronic health records, telemedicine etc.)
What are the classes of DI resources?
- Tertiary resource
- Secondary resource
- Primary resource
Describe tertiary DI resources.
They contain information filtered and summarised by the author or editor to
provide a quick and concise overview of a topic e.g., textbooks, journals etc.
Tertiary DI references often serve as an initial place to identify information since they provide a relatively complete and concise overview of information available on a specific topic.
Most of the basic information a practitioner needs can be found in these sources, making them
excellent first-line resources when dealing with a DI question.
Although some tertiary references are limited to print versions, many are available via online access, downloadable applications, or eBooks.
Mention 5 examples of tertiary DI resources.
- Textbooks
- Compendia
- Books
- Clinical guidelines
- Systematic and narrative review journals
- Package Insert
Mention 4 major compendia electronically available on mobile devices.
- Facts & Comparisons® eAnswers
- IBM®
- Micromedex®
- Lexicomp®
Describe secondary DI resources.
Secondary resources provide access to primary (e.g., clinical trials) and some tertiary (e.g., narrative reviews) literature in journals.
Indexing and abstracting are two common terms used when discussing secondary resources
Practitioners can use secondary resources to stay abreast of recently published literature or to find published literature related to a specific topic.
Secondary resources are available either as paid or free subscriptions to many health care professionals.
Provide 6 examples of secondary DI resource.
Indicate whether they are paid or free.
- CINAHL (Paid)
- EBSCOhost (Paid)
- Excerpta Medica (Paid)
- International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (Paid)
- Ovid MEDLINE® (Paid)
- PubMed® (Free)
Distinguish between Indexing and Abstracting.
Indexing involves providing bibliographic citation information (e.g., title, author, citation of the article)
while
Abstracting includes a brief description (or abstract) of the information provided by the article or resource
Describe primary DI resources.
Primary resources include clinical research studies and reports, both published and unpublished.
Primary resources often provide the most in-depth information about a topic and allow the reader to analyze and critique the study methodology to
determine if the results and conclusions are valid.
Typically, primary resources require strong literature evaluation skills and a longer commitment to review to assess the value and application to health care accurately.
They may be available freely (e.g., open-access articles) or by paid
subscription (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine)
