DRUG

INFORMATION
RESOURCES
BY
Drug Information Unit (DIU)
 INTRODUCTION

■ The term drug information may have different meanings to different

people depending on the context in which it is used.
■ One could describe it as printed information in a reference or
verbalized by an individual that pertains to medications
■ The quantity of medical information and medical literature available is
growing at an astounding rate
■ Understanding where to access information is only the first step in the
provision of quality drug information.
■ The first drug information center was opened at the
University of Kentucky Medical Center in 1962
■ A stated goal was to influence pharmacy students in
developing their role as drug consultants
■ The unavailability of adequate information for those who
consume, prescribe, dispense and administer drugs,
resulted in inappropriate drug use and an unacceptable
frequency of drug-induced disease.
 ACTIVITIES OF DIC

■ Support for clinical services

■ Answering questions
■ Developing criteria/guidelines for medication use
■ Pharmacy and therapeutics committee activity e.g.
– Development of medication use policies
– Formulary management
■ Publications—newsletter, journal columns, websites
■ Education—in-services for health professionals, students, consumers
■ Medication usage evaluation/medication use evaluation
■ Investigational medication control
– Institutional Review Board activities
– Information for practitioners
■ Coordination of reporting programs, e.g., adverse medication
reactions
■ Poison information
TYPES OF LITERATURE

Tertiary

Secondary

Primary
PRIMARY LITERATURE

■ Consists of clinical research studies and reports, both

published and unpublished.
■ Such as controlled trials, cohort studies, case series,
andcase reports. But reviews articles or editorials are not
primary literature
■ Provides the broad base for development of the rest of the
literatures
■ Provides access to original data
■ Consider the journal type, reputation and funding
PRIMARY LITERATURE
 Advantages
 Most recent
 Tremendous and in-depth information about a topic
 Allows the reader to analyze and critique the study
methodology to determine if the conclusions are valid
 Disadvantages
 Overwhelming volume
 Interpretation of results
 Not yet scrutinized by experts
 Misleading conclusions based on only one trial without the
context of other researches
EXAMPLES

■ Peer reviewed journals

– JAMA
– New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
– Annals of Internal Medicine
■ Non-peer reviewed journals
– Supplements
– Pharmacy Today
SECONDARY LITERATURE

■ Guides to the primary literature

■ Valuable tools for quick and selective screening for primary
resources
■ Concise tools for gaining access to the primary literatures
■ Indexing (bibliographic citation information)
■ Abstracts (brief description & bibliographic citation)
■ Most are electronic in format
SECONDARY LITERATURE
■ Advantages
– Simple search strategy
– Very current citation information
– Access point for tremendous amount of primary sources
■ Disadvantages
– Tweaking search strategies unigue to the database e.g
NLM uses MeSH the Iowa Drug Information Service
(IDIS) uses the US Adopted Name and the International
Classification of Diseases.
– it is important to recognize that different databases may
require different search terms to be used
SECONDARY LITERATURE

■ Searches generally use Boolean operators, often AND, OR,

and NOT

AND OR NOT
EXAMPLES
TERTIARY LITERATURE

■ Provides the general information needed to familiarize the

reader with the topic
■ The first place to search due to the fact that they provide a
fairly complete and concise overview of information
available on a specific topic
■ Summarizes and interprets primary literature
■ Information is generally well accepted
■ Can inform your subsequent research
TERTIARY literature

■ Advantages
– Convenient and accessible
– Easy to use, concise and familiar to most practitioners
– Often they provide a review by an expert
– The information is widely accepted
TERTIARY LITERATURE

■ Disadvantages
– Lag time associated with publication leading to outdated
information
– Space limitation
– Errors in transcription
– Human bias
– Incorrect interpretation of information,
– Lack of expertise by authors
EVALUATION OF TERTIARY LITERATURE

■ Does the author have appropriate experience/expertise to

publish in this area?
■ Is the information likely to be timely based on publication
date?
■ Is the information supported by appropriate citations?
■ Does the resource contain relevant information?
■ Does the resource appear free from bias or blatant errors?
TYPES OF TERTIARY LITERATURE

■ Textbooks
– Pharmacotherapy: A Pathophysiologic Approach
– Applied Therapeutics
– The Merck Manual
– Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine
– Meyler’s Side Effects of Drugs
– Emdex
– Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference,
■ Compendia
■ Online
– Lexicomp
– MICROMEDEX
– Drug Facts and Comparisons
– AHFS Drug Information
– Epocrates
Primary
The best
Secondary method to
find
information
Tertiary
THANK YOU