This study measured the validity of a new instrument, the Assessment Instrument for Drug Detailing (AIDD), used by doctors to score the quality of drug detailing provided by pharmaceutical representatives in their offices. Five pharmaceutical representatives provided "good, medium, and poor" details to 135 family doctors in their offices, who were blinded to the quality of the details. A "reference standard group" constructed the details and trained the representatives. An "assessment group" trained family physicians to use the AIDD to score the details. Physicians discriminated between different quality details in all but one domain, nomenclature (P
The use of the Internet as a source of medicines information is increasing. However, the quality of online information is highly variable. Equipping Internet users to distinguish good quality information is the aim of a new five-item quality assessment tool (DARTS) that was developed by the Working Group on Information to Patients under the Pharmaceutical Forum established by the European Commission. The objective of this study was to investigate how people with depression assess the quality of online medicines information and to study their opinions about the DARTS tool in assisting in this process.
Focus group discussions with Internet users were conducted in metropolitan Helsinki, Finland.
Six focus group discussions (67-109 min duration) were conducted with people with depression (n = 29). The DARTS tool was used as a stimulus after open discussion in relation to the evaluation of the quality of Internet-based medicines information. The focus groups were digitally audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were thematically content analysed by two researchers.
Focus group participants were generally critical of the information they retrieved. However, few participants systematically applied quality assessment criteria when retrieving online information. No participants had knowledge or experience of any quality assessment tools. The DARTS tool was perceived as being concise and easy to use and understand. Many participants indicated it would allay some of their concerns related to information quality and act as a reminder. While several participants felt the tool should not be any more extensive, some of them believed it should include a more in-depth explanation to accompany each of the quality criteria.
The DARTS tool may act as a prompt for people with depression to assess the quality of online information they obtain. The five DARTS criteria may form the basis of a systematic approach to quality assessment and the tool may also act as a reminder of quality issues in general. Further studies are needed to assess the actual value of the DARTS tool as well as its value in relation to other quality assessment instruments.
General Practitioners {GP} in Sweden prescribe more than 50% of all prescriptions. Scientific knowledge on the opinions of GPs regarding drug information has been sparse. Such knowledge could be valuable when designing evidence-based drug information to GPs. GPs' opinions on public- and industry-provided drug information are presented in this article.
A cross-sectional study using a questionnaire was answered by 368 GPs at 97 primary-health care centres {PHCC}. The centres were invited to participate by eight out of 29 drug and therapeutic committees {DTCs}. A multilevel model was used to analyse associations between opinions of GPs regarding drug information and whether the GPs worked in public sector or in a private enterprise, their age, sex, and work experience. PHCC and geographical area were included as random effects.
About 85% of the GPs perceived they received too much information from the industry, that the quality of public information was high and useful, and that the main task of public authorities was to increase the GPs' knowledge of drugs. Female GPs valued information from public authorities to a much greater extent than male GPs. Out of the GPs, 93% considered the main task of the industry was to promote sales. Differences between the GPs' opinions between PHCCs were generally more visible than differences between areas.
Some kind of incentives could be considered for PHCCs that actively reduce drug promotion from the industry. That female GPs valued information from public authorities to a much greater extent than male GPs should be taken into consideration when designing evidence-based drug information from public authorities to make implementation easier.
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Cites: Lakartidningen. 2008 Oct 15-21;105(42):2924-919025149
To determine the impact of a drug information service on patient outcomes.
Prospective evaluation of patient-specific drug information requests.
Healthcare professional and consumer drug information service located at a college of pharmacy.
Consumers and healthcare professionals of the province.
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.
Classification of patient outcome by objective and subjective data based on predetermined desired outcomes.
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).
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.
Patients with cardiac disease knew more about medicaments after receiving medicament-related counselling by a pharmacist on discharge from hospital. This was demonstrated by a questionnaire answered by 49 patients whose answers were compared with the results of a study conducted in 1991, when patients did not receive information from a pharmacist in hospital. More patients were pleased with the information, and most of them were satisfied with the consultation with the pharmacist. Lack of time was stated to be the main reason why other hospital health care professionals often provided insufficient information on medicaments to patients. It was discovered that physicians did not record a proper history of the medication. This affected management of the therapy and the information given to patients. This investigation shows that a pharmacist can make an important contribution to the care of patients. Health care professionals should begin to discuss with the health authorities how best to organize the information patients receive on medicaments.
