UNIT 2

SOURCES OF DRUG INFORMATION

DRUG LITERATURE
It comprises primary, secondary and tertiary literature that can be used as
basis for optimizing the use of drugs in patients.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

TERTIARY LITERATURE
 The tertiary sources will provide the practitioner with general information
needed to familiarize the reader with the topic.
 Examples
 Textbooks
 full-text database
 review articles

 When to use TERTIARY LITERATURE

To obtain general information
To refresh your knowledge or learn about a subject
For background information regarding a disease or treatment
For information regarding standard diagnosis and treatment for a
particular disease or condition

Advantages Disadvantages
Easy to use May not be timely
Compiled from many literature May not answer the Question
sources
Written by experts May be incomplete due to space limit of book and
or incomplete search
Convenient, complete and concise May be biased, human error, incorrect
overview of information interpretation of information

SECONDARY LITERATURE
 A secondary database may be employed to direct the reader to review primary
literature articles that might provide more insight on the topic, if tertiary
literature’s information is not recent or comprehensive
o Index System
 An indexing system provides only bibliographic information that is
index by topic.
 title, author, and citation of the article

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 o Abstract
 An abstract service provides a brief description of information
contained in a specific citation.
 This resources generally are used to refer the researcher to more
detailed information found in the journal articles
Advantages Disadvantages
It provides rapid access to specific  Lag time between the time of
topics found in the primary literature information is made public or
(journal article) and an abstract or published in the primary literature
description of the article. and the time the information is
indexed by the secondary literature.

Examples PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, IPA

PRIMARY LITERATURE

• Primary literature often provides the most recent and in-depth information about
a topic, and allows the reader to analyze and critique the study methodology to
determine if the conclusions are valid
• consists of clinical research studies and reports, both published and unpublished
clinical studies

When to use
 When researching a new medication or a new indication for medication
 When a therapeutic controversy exists between to agents
 When treatment options appears to have similar efficacy
 When tertiary literature does not provide the answer
 When you need to know key details
Advantages Disadvantages
access to detailed information about • misleading conclusions based on
a topic and the ability to personally only one trial without the context of
assess the utility and validity of other researches,
study results • the need to have good skills in
More recent medial literature evaluation

Example: JAMA,

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 Unit III
Search Process, Information Retrieval and Internet Appraisal

Search engine
 www.google.com
 www.googlescholar.com
 www.bing.com
 www.yahoo.com
 www.ask.com
 www.aol.com
 www.wow.com
 www.webcrawler.com
 www.Mywebsearch.com
 www.infospace.com
 www.info.com

Internet sites and Domain name

 “edu” (education)
 “gov” (government)
 “com” (commercial)
 “org” (organization)
 “mil” (military)
 “biz” (business)
 “net” (network)

QUALITY OF WEBSITES
High Quality
 Coming from a well recognize reputable sponsors
Medium Qualities
 Not well recognized but the type of information appears to be from reputable
known source and the intent is to better serve the community
 Information appears to be unbiased
 Available addresses, phone number, email address and professional affiliations
Low Qualities
 Tends to sell products
 Information is biased
 May provide one or few credentials

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CRITERIA in Evaluating the Credibility of internet websites
1. Ownership of the website
-determines if there may be a potential commercial use
High Medium Low

Coming from well Coming from site providers Coming from site provider
recognized and reputable who appears to be that tends to advertise and
sponsors reputable but are not well sell products
recognized

2. Authors & Purpose

 Who created the web site?
 Who is responsible for running the web site? Are they physicians or health care
professionals who specialize in a medical field?
 Why was the website created? Goals? (sponsoring organization)
 Home/Main Page
 Look for link - About Us, About this Site, About – This should be your first
stop.
 Site Map – may also be helpful
High Medium Low

Qualified staff because it is Have credentials but not Credentials do not qualify
to state their credibility well recognized them
* No About us section
3. Accuracy
 Accuracy refers to the reliability of the information.
 To examine the quality of the content on the site, ask the following questions:
o Dependable?
o Error-free?
o Documented?
o Accurate?
o Comprehensive?
o Understandable?
High Medium Low

Information is unbiased Information appears Information is subject to

and complete; can extract
useful information to
address queries
unbiased, appears bias because the site
reputable provider is trying to
influence the user.
*catalogs and prices for the
product and services
mentioned on the web
pages

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4. Review process
 Gives the user an idea of how meticulous the site about its postings. It is
preferable that site uses a peer-review process
 The About Us page should tell if there is an “editorial board”, “selection policy”,
or “review process”.
 The editorial board should have credentials that relate to the information they are
reviewing.
 Even if experts review the information that is posted on the site, you should
continue to ask questions
High Medium Low

With HON logo With Hon logo None

HON LOGO
The Health On the Net Foundation (HON) promotes and guides the
deployment of useful and reliable online health information, and its
appropriate and efficient use. HON has focused on the essential question of
the provision of health information to citizens, information that respects
ethical standards. To cope with the unprecedented volume of healthcare
information available on the Net, the HONcode of conduct offers a multi-
stakeholder consensus on standards to protect citizens from misleading health
information.

5. Currency
 Gives the user an idea of how current the information is on the page
High Medium Low

Updated Not regularly updated None

* Considerations on
journal, some are not
recent but still considered
as high quality sites, they
are from reputable sites

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
 Ability to get the information needed
 Skills in using keywords
 Synonyms
 Related words
 Use of Boolean operators

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Boleean operators
 major Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT
 Allow the searcher to combine terms in ways that narrow or broaden a search for
specific topics within the database

pregnancy DM pregnancy DM pregnancy DM

Synonyms, keywords, related terms

Parenterals
 Injectables  Intravenous
 Sterile Products  Intramuscular
 IV admixtures  Subcutaneous
 Total Parenteral Nutrition  Intradermal

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