Healthy Skepticism Library item: 3034

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Hibberd P.
Use of drug information sources by hospital doctors
Journal of Information Science 1980; 2:169-172

Abstract:

We have carried out a survey of 155 hospital doctors to find out how they: 1) learn about new drugs, and 2) check on basic prescribing details. We found that 85% of the respondents used the commercially produced Monthly Index of Medical Specialties (MIMS) to learn about the existence of a new drug, but the majority of doctors turned to sources of information produced by the medical profession to learn about the efficacy of a new drug. MIMS was considered an important source for checking on most basic prescribing details, but was closely rivalled by the British National Formulary (BNF). Although there are numerous drug information sources in existence, it appears that no available source meets all the needs of the prescribing doctor. We suggest that this unsatisfactory situation might be overcome by: 1) producing a revised type ofdrug reference manual; 2) providing a comprehensive drug information service run by clinical pharmacologists and drug information pharmacists with cooperation from the pharmaceutical industry to back up this manual.