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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Drug information service for drug product procurement in the Veterans Affairs health-care system: preliminary experience.

The preliminary experience of the drug information service of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) central office is described. The drug information service assists the drug and pharmaceutical product management section of the pharmacy service for the VA central office. The purpose of the drug information service is to promote efficacious drug therapy while meeting cost containment goals for pharmaceutical products. The pharmacist coordinator of this service has experience in both patient care and drug information service. The drug information service is involved in the following activities: (1) making recommendations for contract bidding on therapeutically equivalent products, (2) identifying prescription duplication within the system, (3) reporting product defects, (4) planning drug procurement in unique situations, such as during war, (5) developing gender-specific therapy, (6) evaluating the appropriateness of brand-name-only purchasing of certain products, (7) evaluating new drug products, (8) compiling national drug-use data, and (9) projecting drug price increases. The VA drug information service has diverse responsibilities meant to optimize drug therapy and reduce pharmacy costs in the VA health-care system.

Cost Control↗
PubMed1982

Obstetric drug information service.

An obstetric drug information service in a 435-bed general hospital in Australia is described. The specialized service was established within a general drug information center after receiving a large percentage of calls on the use of drugs during pregnancy and lactation. The service decided to specialize in information on: (1) drugs excreted in breast milk, (2) drug effects on the fetus, (3) drug effects on the pregnant mother, and (4) drugs affecting sperm. An obstetrician is associated with the service to provide clinical judgments, assessments, and his expertise in the field. Monographs were prepared on 97 commonly prescribed drugs. The service provides oral replies and written replies that are checked by the director and deputy director of pharmaceutical services for their accuracy. Of the 1445 inquiries received during an 18-month period, 60% (863) were related to the use of drugs during pregnancy and lactation. The most frequent users of the service were physicians. Specific topics of the calls included inquiries on antibiotics (154 calls), psychotropic drugs (108), and analgesic and cold preparations (58). The center provided written replies for 51% of the calls. The specialized drug information center has received an increasing number of inquiries and positive feedback from its users.

Australia↗
PubMed1999

Regional drug information service.

BACKGROUND: Drug information centers (DICs) were established in Europe more than two decades ago. The majority of German DICs were created in the 90s. The regional University hospital-based DIC, which offers services to physicans, is now in operation for three and a half years . OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the types of enquiries received and the profile of the users of a drug information service. METHODS: The working procedure at a regional center in Dresden, Germany, is described. The topics for consultation (adverse reactions, pharmacokinetics, etc.) are presented, and the types of drugs involved are classified according to the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification. Users are grouped by medical specialty. Future plans for the DIC are discussed. RESULTS: A total of 516 enquiries were received. Questions concerning therapeutic use (34%), adverse drug reactions (28%), pregnancy/lactation (16%), and pharmacokinetics/dosage (15%) were asked most frequently. Cardiovascular drugs (20%), systemic antiinfectives (19%) as well as drugs targeting the central nervous system (15%) and alimentation/metabolism (9%) were the predominant foci of enquiries. The major users of the DIC were internists (19%), general practitioners (19%), pediatricians (18%), and gynecologists (11%). CONCLUSIONS: The types of questions and users of this service were generally similar to those recorded at many other European DICs. The service has begun producing educational bulletins on drug-related topics of clinical relevance.

Drug Information Services↗
PubMed1986

Program coordinated by a drug information service to improve adverse drug reaction reporting in a hospital.

A program coordinated by a drug information service to improve adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting in a hospital is described. At a 520-bed teaching hospital, the drug information service was asked to design a new adverse drug reaction reporting system that would encourage clinicians to report ADRs. A new system was implemented on a general medical unit: A physician, pharmacist, or nurse telephoned the drug information service when an adverse drug reaction was suspected, and drug information personnel followed up on the report, completing all subsequent investigation and documentation. A standard algorithm was used to evaluate causality of the reported reactions. Pertinent data were entered on a form and retained in the drug information service. The primary physician's approval was obtained before a reaction could be reported on an FDA drug-experience form. Drug information service personnel reviewed the ADR data monthly to detect any trends that clinicians should be aware of and to prepare a report for the pharmacy and therapeutics committee. Nurses, physicians, and pharmacy personnel were oriented to the new system before its implementation and were subsequently informed about reported ADRs and use of the system through newsletters and meetings. In the initial three-month period, 23 ADRs involving 19 drugs were reported from the medical unit; in a six-month period before development of the new system, no ADRs had been reported. This ADR reporting system developed and implemented by the drug information service was effective in improving reporting of adverse drug reactions.

Drug Information Services↗
PubMed1995

Pharmacy management company-negotiated contract for drug information services.

University-based drug information services provided on a contractual basis to the pharmacies of a pharmacy management company are described. Allied Pharmacy Management, Inc. (APM), the manager of 34 institutional pharmacies, 3 community pharmacies, and 6 long-term-care and infusion therapy pharmacies, determined a need to contract for the services of a drug information center. Centers meeting basic criteria were invited to submit proposals. After careful research and negotiations, APM chose the University of Tennessee Drug Information Center for a one-year contract beginning in November 1992. Services provided under the contract include drug information consultations, formulary drug class reviews, new drug monographs, drug-use evaluation (DUE) criteria, literature reviews, and newsletters. Seven months after the contract went into effect, APM-affiliated pharmacy directors stated that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the quality of the answers to drug information requests, the newsletters, and the drug monographs and agreed overwhelmingly that the contract should be renewed. The contract has been renewed for second and third years. During the first year, the drug information center answered 155 questions and took 121 hours to do so. In the second year there were 244 questions, requiring 161 hours. In year 1 there were 21 formulary class reviews, 6 newsletters, 5 new drug monographs, and 1 set of DUE criteria. There have been 20-25 literature searches during each contract year. The drug information services provided by a university-based drug information center under contract with a pharmacy management company satisfied the directors of the affiliated pharmacies.

Contract Services↗
PubMed1978

The regional drug information service: a factor in health care?

Most regional health authorities throughout the United Kingdom have established drug information units to provide health service staff with a wide range of information about drugs and drug use. The units, which are staffed by drug information pharmacists, provide their service mainly by answering inquiries, although some disseminate information more positively through lectures and bulletins.An analysis of inquiries received by regional information units during 1976 showed that most were submitted by hospital doctors or pharmacists; comparatively few were received from general practitioners. Topics of inquiry included adverse effects of drugs, source of supply and identification, current treatment, dosage, route, precautions, and pharmaceutical problems such as stability or formulation of drug preparations. A more detailed analysis of the inquiries received by the North-western Regional Drug Information Service at Manchester over three years showed that the number of inquiries gradually increased and that more were received from general practitioners after a programme of lectures had been introduced to tell them about the service. The North-western service also received more requests from hospital pharmacists than other units, though many originated from clinicians.The regional drug information units consulted widely with clinical and other specialists in answering questions, but about a quarter of all inquiries were pharmaceutical, relating to stability and incompatibility. A multidisciplinary approach therefore seems necessary to provide a comprehensive and advisory drug information service.

Community Health Services↗
PubMed1987

The Medication Information Line for the Elderly. A consumer/health care professional-oriented drug information service.

The experiences of a drug information telephone service aimed at older adults, their care providers, and health care professionals are presented. The Medication Information Line for the Elderly received 1,561 telephone calls over the 12 months since its opening. The majority of callers (73%) were female and 723 (46%) of the 1,561 calls came from people in the 65 to 79 age group. Nearly one-third of all enquiries were about suspected drug-related adverse drug reactions. The drugs most commonly causing concern (as classified by the American Hospital Formulary Service) were nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cardiac drugs, and benzodiazepines; a list comparable to the most frequently prescribed drugs in older adults. The pharmacist was able to respond to 853 (27%) of the 3,172 enquiries without reference material. The most frequently used sources of information were the USP Drug information, Volumes I & II, and the Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties. Follow-up calls on certain consumer enquiries indicated that 89% of the recommendations were adhered to, suggesting a beneficial influence of this type of drug information service on medication use.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Establishment of a 900 telephone number at a university-based drug information service.

Effects of converting a free drug information service at a university medical center to a 900 telephone number are described. Calls to a university medical center drug information service had increased beyond the capacity of staff. A telephone survey to recent users of the service indicated that callers outside the institution would be willing to pay a fee for the service, so a 900 number was instituted for outside calls in January 1993. Staff recorded data on all questions they answered; data for 1993 were compared with those from 1992. Question volume decreased by 48% after the 900 number was instituted, with questions from outside the institution dropping by 55%, questions from outside health care professionals dropping by 72%, and questions from the lay public increasing slightly. One severe impediment to callers from local hospitals was that many hospitals block access to 900 numbers from their telephone systems. The average length of a call was three minutes and the average cost per call was $6. Net income during the first year of operation was $6698. The 900 number provided some income, but it did not completely offset operating costs. A 900 telephone number is a workable, but imperfect, method of providing drug information to outside callers. Early notification of users before implementing a 900 number is essential to allow time for them to arrange telephone access.

California↗
PubMed1993

[The drug information service in the hospital].

A Drug Information Service (MID) delivers competent information, free from influences of industry. Users are mainly physicians and pharmacists, who are not able to solve a particular pharmacologic problem by their own means. For many years such MIDs are operated in several countries by clinical pharmacists. In Switzerland, too, there is particular interest in drug-oriented information for years. In this article a short overview on basic informations and first experiences concerning this domain are presented.

Drug Information Services↗
PubMed1977

Comprehensive clinical drug information service: first year's experience.

A comprehensive clinical drug information service, established in the Northern Region in May 1975, is manned by eight doctors--all clinical pharmacologists--and is available 24 hours a day. In the first year of operation 451 inquiries were received, 354 (78-5%) of which were "consultative." Though junior hospital doctors used the service most, almost half of the inquiries about adverse reactions to drugs came from consultants.

Drug Information Services↗
PubMed1986

Use of information sources at a university hospital drug information service.

The frequency of use of various sources to answer drug information requests in a university hospital drug information service was studied. All of the drug information requests received by the University of Minnesota Drug Information Service (UMDIS) between November 1, 1983, and January 27, 1984, were included in the evaluation. A total of 1448 requests from health-care professionals and consumers were reviewed. The 10 most frequently used information sources in order of most to least often used were Facts and Comparisons, previous knowledge or experience of the UMDIS staff, Drugdex, Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia, USP DI, the UMDIS files, information from pharmaceutical manufacturers, Goodman and Gilman's the Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, and Meyler's Side Effects of Drugs. Forty percent of the requests were from consumers. Pharmacists should characterize the type and number of drug information requests they receive and should consider the accessibility of a drug information service and biomedical library when deciding which references to purchase.

Catalogs, Drug as Topic↗
PubMed1975

Comparison of the clinical utility of four drug information services.

The clinical utility of International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Iowa Drug Information Service, deHaen Drugs in Use, and deHaen Drugs in Research was compared. The number of references obtained for questions in five different clinical areas, and the amount of time for each search, were studied and compared. The Iowa Drug Information Service appeared to have the highest overall relative utility for obtaining clinical information. The two deHaen services offered broad coverage of the primary clinical literature. International Pharmaceutical Abstracts was effective in locating many useful references.

Biopharmaceutics↗
PubMed2000

Impact of the dial access drug information service on patient outcome.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of a drug information service on patient outcomes. DESIGN: Prospective evaluation of patient-specific drug information requests. SETTING: Healthcare professional and consumer drug information service located at a college of pharmacy. PARTICIPANTS: Consumers and healthcare professionals of the province. INTERVENTION: Patient-specific questions received by the drug information service were reviewed and evaluated for actual patient outcome, inquirers' opinion of impact of the service with respect to patient outcome, and for objectivity and timeliness of the response. An expert panel determined whether the responses and recommendations given by the service were appropriate, determined what impact the service had on the patient, and assessed the seriousness of the inquiry. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Classification of patient outcome by objective and subjective data based on predetermined desired outcomes. RESULTS: Ninety-eight and 68 patient-specific requests were received from healthcare professionals and consumers, respectively. The panel concluded that 94.9% of the healthcare requests and 98.5% of the consumer requests were answered appropriately and that the majority of the requests involved potentially serious drug-related problems. The panel also determined that 46.8% of the recommendations to healthcare professionals and 41.0% of the recommendations to consumers resulted in positive patient outcomes. The majority of the positive outcomes involved the prevention of a disease or its symptoms (professional section) and the reduction or elimination of symptoms (consumer section). CONCLUSIONS: The drug information service not only met its objectives of providing drug information in an accurate, objective, and timely manner, but was also able to provide positive patient outcomes.

Community Participation↗
PubMed2003

Patient perspectives on provision of drug information services in Japan.

Today pharmacists provide indispensable drug information to patients, however, few studies have examined the kind of information that patients want, or their satisfaction with pharmacists' advice. Therefore, we have examined a variety of factors, including individual patient characteristics, in order to identify ways to provide useful and appropriate drug information on an individual basis. In short, the aim of this study was to develop a drug information service that addresses patient needs. A prospective survey of patient satisfaction with the level of care provided by pharmacists, before and after a telephone counseling session, was performed over a 9 month period (2000-2001). Along with satisfaction ratings, the content of the interviews was assessed, along with patient characteristics. Correspondence analysis was used to classify the content of the consultations, and cluster analysis was performed to classify caller characteristics. In total, 2022 people were counseled. It should be noted that, on occasion, family members were interviewed instead of the patients themselves. The average counseling session was 11.5 minutes (n = 1876). Patients expressing the least dissatisfaction prior to counseling tended to have the highest satisfaction levels after counseling. Almost all patients were satisfied with the counseling they received. An association was found between levels of pre-counseling dissatisfaction and time spent counseling patients over the telephone. No dimensions of high inertia were identified by correspondence analysis of consultation content and patient characteristics (n = 1667), however, questions regarding "efficacy and indications", "dosages and administration", "anxiety of adverse events", "realization of adverse events", and "interactions" were deemed similar by correspondence analysis. This study shows that patient perceptions regarding drug information services differ from those of pharmacists. Furthermore, several subtypes of patients were identified, based on their responsiveness to counseling. Pharmacists should take this into consideration when standing face-to-face with patients in the setting of their pharmacy practice.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1980

Drug information services for consumers and health professionals.

Provision of drug information services to both health professionals and consumers is described. The Rocky Mountain Drug Consultation Center (RMDCC) has been available to health professionals at Denver General Hospital since 1977. In April 1979, the RMDCC began promotion of combined health-professional- and consumer-oriented services. The service operates 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, with 24-hour on-call service. It is staffed by pharmacists who devote 70 man-hours per week to it. Training is primarily on the job. Most of the $80,500 budget is funded through a public health grant from the State of Colorado. a nine-member physician advisory board periodically reviews quality of responses. During a one-year period (April 1979-March 1980), 2264 calls were received from consumers and 1762 calls from health professionals--an increase of 197% over the previous year. Approximately 90% of consumer calls were not considered serious problems or were informational requests; 10% were considered potentially serious or serious drug-related problems. Less than 1% of consumers' questions required the use of anything more than basic drug information references. Of 76 follow-up calls made to consumers for serious or potentially serious problems, 73 were successfully recontacted, and 70 said they either followed RMDCC's recommendations or contacted their physician. The authors believe that combined consumer-oriented and health-professional-oriented drug information services help prevent misuse of medications by consumers.

Colorado↗
PubMed1975

Regional drug information service benefits: free versus fee-for-service.

Health providers in a four-state area who had utilized the Nebraska Regional Drug Information Service were surveyed to determine: (1) if providers would pay a fee for drug information services; and (2) if they would prefer a per-call fee or an annual subscription fee. Of 1,000 questionnaires mailed, approximately 500 were returned and analyzed. Results indicated that 52% of those responding felt that the drug information service provided direct benefits to patients. The service fee preferred most was $2.00 to $5.00 per call or $25.00 per year. Actual operating cost data showed that a per-call charge of $2.50 would not permit the service to break even. However, it was projected that the service would break even if it charged an annual fee of $25.00.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗