Title 5. DRUG INFORMATION AND POISONS INFORMATION.pdf ✅

PHARMD GURU Page 2  To develop educational activities regarding the appropriate use of drugs for patients in the community.  To prepare and distribute material on drugs to health personnel in the form of a drug Information bulletin and/or other media.  To develop and participate in research programs. THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION/RESOURCES AVAILABLE: 1. PRIMARY SOURCE:  Information is presented by authors without any evaluation by a second party.  Provides must current information about drugs. Examples; articles published in journals (e.g. British Medical Journal), thesis etc. 2. SECONDARY SOURCE:  The original source has been evaluated by second party other than the publisher.  Modified and rearranged form. Examples; review articles like LexisNexis, Medline etc. 3. TERTIARY SOURCE:  Information obtained from primary and secondary source and arranged in a manner to represent a composite of the available information. Examples: Representative form Pharmacopoeias - BP, USP, IP, BNF etc., Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Guides, text books and Other Sources: a) The DIC also receives information from b) The public and hospitals about the Adverse effects of any drug c) Local drug lists d) National Formularies e) Hospital Formularies  Internet Phone calls to Manufacturers.  Government and Non-government organizations and  To other DIC‟s. DRUG INFORMATION SKILLS:  Drug informer should understand the nature of the question and should ask all the needed questions to get the ultimate question.
PHARMD GURU Page 3  Most specialists today use the modified systematic approach designed by „Host and Kirkwood‟, these are: STEP I: SECURE DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE REQUESTORS:  Who requests?  Med/non med personnel  Educated/un educated personnel  Name/location/phone/email etc., of requestor, this determines the type of response that will be given. STEP II: OBTAIN BACKGROUND INFORMATION:  Where the requestor heard/read about the drug?  Is he/she taking medicine? Why?  Is he/she/caregiver wants to take medicine?  This helps determining what additional information should be provided. STEP III: DETERMINE AND CATEGORIZE THE ULTIMATE QUESTION: Putting the pieces of information together to form ultimate question and once it has been determined; the next step is to categorize the question. STEP IV: DEVELOP STRATEGY AND CONDUCT RESEARCH: Strategies should be developed with a typical algorithm with three essential components; tertiary-secondary-primary literature. STEP V: PERFORM EVALUATION, ANALYSIS & SYNTHESIS: Provider should take time to evaluate the info, analyze and then synthesize it into a good reply. STEP VI: FORMULATE AND PROVIDE RESPONSE:  An outline should be established to help formulate a response to the drug info request.  It‟s important to have; introduction, body and conclusion. STEP VII; CONDUCT FOLLOW-UP AND DOCUMENTATION:  Checking with the requestor to make sure his/her question has been sufficiently and completely answered.
PHARMD GURU Page 4  Of vital importance is to document all the steps taken in this process. DRUG LITERATURE EVALUATION:  Among the skills of drug information is knowledge of drug literature evaluation which allows one to provide a critical analysis of the literature and have a better understanding of the studies done in health and medicine.  It is a key component to provide a good quality answer to a requester.  Being able to separate good data from poor data is essential.  Knowing the limitations of any study can help in evaluating the usability of its data.  Drug information specialists will often use some standard questions to help in this process.  Several references provide guides to evaluate the medical and pharmacy literature. GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR RESPONSES TO DRUG INFORMATION:  Do not guess  Take several ethical issues into account  Patient privacy must be maintained  Patient-physician relation cannot be breached  Response is not necessary if the inquirer intends to misuse or abuse the information that is provided.  Organize information before attempting to communicate the response to the inquirer.  Tailor the response to the inquirer‟s background.  Tell the inquirer where the information was found.  Alert the inquirer of a possible delay when it takes longer than anticipated to answer the question.  Ask if the inquirer‟s question is answered by the information. DRUG INFORMATION CENTERS: 1) Drug information centers (DICs) in general, are service providers, which provide drug information relating to therapies, Pharmacoeconomics, education, and research programs.