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Introduction
• Categorization of information is a necessary
activity that should be performed by drug
Various Sources of Drug information specialists in order to provide
Information current, relevant and critically reviewed
information
Ian Ace A. Pacquiao, RPh, MSPharm • Understanding the nature of different types of
literature can help improve a drug information
specialist’s skillset in the process of drug
information search and retrieval
The Internet as a Source of
Objectives Information
• At the end of the discussion, the students are There has been an explosion of information available on the
Internet for both the health care professionals and the
expected to: consumer.
– Examining the authenticity of internet sources and Internet serves as a “starting point” to identify relevant
assessing the quality of internetsources resources online for questions about unusual diseases, new
drugs, topics that have recently been in the news, marketed
– Discussing how to assesspeer-reviewed over-the-counter products and combination dietary
biomedical literature supplements.
– Categorizing the different studydesigns As estimated 60 million U.S. adults use search engines daily
basis to explore more than 1 trillion web pages; studies
– Analyzing the elements of studydesign suggest that about 60% of adults search online for health-
related information.
The Internet as a Source of The Internet as a Source of
Information Information
Patients rely on Internet for health and Drug Many online web-sites provide HCPs with fast
Information (DI) when they may not have results to DI questions and even access to
access to a health care professional (HCP). professional journals.
Studies have shown that the younger Many primary resources (clinical trials, original
population will use the Internet as one of their articles, case reports) are accessed directly from
primary sources of DI. Older adults (60 years the Website of the publisher or medical/pharmacy
and older) prefer to talk to an HCP as their journal. Some journals are open access and
primary source of DI, but these patients will majority required subscription. Access to the
abstract is free of charge.
also access the Internet.
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The Internet as a Source of The Internet as a Source of
Information Information
The most commonly used secondary Searching skills are essential in getting to the best
resources/indexing databases by DI Pharmacists information, and it make a difference in the
on the internet are PubMed, Cochrane Library, quality of the information obtained, whether from
MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus. commercial sites or from free professional sites
such as PubMed.
Tertiary resources (Textbooks/Review articles)
are abundant on the Internet. However, the internet does not replace the
science of DI retrieval and evaluation. Internet
But, whenever using information found on a Web searches retrieve data that still needs expert
site, it is critical to locate the “date of last update” analysis and a critical eye to evaluate the
to avoid providing outdated evidence to a DI evidence.
request.
E x a mp l E s : OnlinE pRimaRY sOuRcEs fOR E x a mp l E s : OnlinE sEcOnDaRY sOuRcEs
Di fOR Di
E x a mp l E s : OnlinE sEcOnDaRY sOuRcEs
fOR Di OnlinE TERTiaRY REsOuRcEs
Access Pharmacy
DailyMed
Facts and Comparisons Online
LexiComp Online
AccessMedicine
Micromedex
[Link]
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E x a mp l E s : OnlinE TERTiaRY E x a mp l E s : OnlinE TERTiaRY
sOuRcEs fOR Di sOuRcEs fOR Di
Evaluation of Information Availableon Evaluating the resources for
the Internet credibility
As anyone can create an internet site and literally millions
of websites are available however there are no true quality
assurance measures in place to evaluate the reliability of
information available.
It is essential for pharmacists to evaluate the “credibility,
validity and reliability” of the drug information from any
internet source.
Many Internet online services, either available free or for a
paid subscription are invaluable sources of high-quality,
evidence-based medicinal information in the field of
pharmacy practice.
[Link]
/pharmacy/evaluatingresources
Evaluating the resources for Internet Search Engines
credibility Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Dogpile are
often utilized to search the World Wide Web. Among these search
engines, Google is the most frequently visited.
Different search engines often produce different results for the same term;
therefore, the use of more than one search engine can improve results.
Search engines often show “Wikipedia” results at the top of the results
list. But DI pharmacist should aware that Wikipedia is not peer-reviewed
and does not always provide valid and reliable information and hence not
to be relied it as a major DI source.
Most valuable or highest quality references for a HCP are usually found
in the scroll area, which requires you to scroll down to other pages to find
significantly better results.
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Internet Search Engines inTERnET sEaRcH EnGinEs
1. Boolean logic operators:
• Boolean logic is used in search engines such as Google, Pubmed,
and AccessPharmacy.
• The use of Boolean logical operators “AND, OR, and NOT” can
help narrow results in search strategies.
sEaRcH EnGinEs Internet SEARCHENGINES
2. Advanced Search Engines (Metasearch Engines):
• If the topic that is very unusual and required to search
several general search engines, it may be appropriate to use
a multiple web search engine, also referred to as a
metasearch engine.
• Metasearch engine is a software that allows the searching
of multiple databases using a single uniform interface,
which will search multiple search engines concurrently.
• Metasearch engines (e.g., Dogpile, metacrawler,
[Link]) allow the user to enter terms and search
multiple search engines at one time.
inTERnET sEaRcH EnGinEs inTERnET sEaRcH EnGinEs
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OnlinE infORmaTiOn s E a R c H
Online information SEARCH sTRaTEGiEs
strategies
The most efficient search for a particular article often uses the
article title or author name.
Searching by journal name can locate a specific article or series
of articles in one journal issue. But, the specific title as indexed
by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) is required.
Searching by author name, the last name and first initial (or first
and second initial) of the author are needed. A search by article
title or author name can be performed with PubMed.
The “limit/filters” function in [Link], Pubmed and
other websites provides a means of filtering unwanted articles
from a set of search results.
The search parameters are limited according to the criteria the
searcher selects. Examples of limits include language,
human/animal species, gender, age group, review articles,
publication type, publication year.
Obtaining High Quality DI Obtaining High Quality DI
Use of “filters” provide HCPs with better searching strategies. The Validity filters are a means to narrow the search to only the higher-
two most prominent filters are “content filters” and “validity quality evidence.
filters”. systematic reviews
randomised controlled trials
Content filters are “specific to the drug or disease state” being diagnostic studies
searched and ensure that the HCP is searching the most appropriate economic studies
content.
patient issues.
Example: if searching for antibiotics for otitis media, the search More reliable databases (e.g., MEDLINE, PubMed) is preferred for
term “antibiotics” would not be a good content filter because the researching DI questions.
databases are searched for just that term and not necessarily a
specific type of antibiotic.
MOBILE APPSFORDRUGINFORMATION
Mobile Apps are unique in offering timely and in-depth
online drug information for HCPs on drugs, natural
products, products by name, drug safety information,
interactions, medical calculators and more, whether in the
hospital or on-the-go.
Content is stored directly on the device – HCPs can
quickly answer questions even if there is a weak mobile
mOBilE a p p s : signal or no internet connection.
aDVancED OnlinE suppORT fOR DRuG infORmaTiOn
Available for the most popular tablets and smartphones,
including iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Andro id devices.
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TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES
Mobile apps have no geographic restriction to accessing and retrieving
information once downloaded.
About 500 million smartphone owners use a health care app worldwide in
2015 and 50% of the more than 3.4 billion smartphone and tablet users
will have downloaded mobile health applications, including health care
professionals, consumers, and patients [U.S. FDA, Mobile medical
applications, 2015].
Many of the major compendia available electronically also offer a
product for a mobile device.
In a study found that 80% of community pharmacy participants felt
confident when using medical apps and found them useful with patient
consultations (55%) and health care education (80%) [American’s
Internet access 2000-2105].
TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES
PEPID is a frequently
updated clinical decision
support/reference app
targeted toward
emergency room
physicians, but also be
useful for nurses,
students, residents,
pharmacists.
HCPs use this app to look up
Ref: [Link] information and
interactions.
TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES
iVdeo: [Link] [Link]
reference/apps/training-videos/ uptodate/
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TERTIARY RESOURCESFORMOBILEDEVICES FUTURE OF DRUG INFORMATION FOR PATIENT CARE
Pharmacists might have to deal with advanced
digital equipments to retrieve drug information
and for patient care.
In future, implantable devices may carry medical
records.
To do all of this, pharmacists mus t have to learn
how to use t he technology at best to enhance their
capabilities t o improve patient care .
FUTURE OF DRUG INFORMATION FOR PATIENT
CARE
REFERENCES
The Internet as a Drug Information Resource. US
Pharmacist: The Pharmacist’s Resources for Clinical
Excellence. 2010.
ttps://[Link]/article/the-internet-as-a- d
h
rug-information resource.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Mobile medical
applications. 2015 [cited 2017 Mar 3]. Available from:
[Link]
bileMedicalApplications/[Link]. Accessed
March 3, 2017.
Perrin A, Duggan M. Americans’ Internet access: 2000-
2015. June 26, 2015. Available from:
[Link]
internetaccess-2000-2015/. Accessed March 1, 2017.
The 11 Best Mobile Apps for Pharmacy Technician
Students. [Link]
apps-for-pharmacy-technician-students