What is ICT and what is its importance?
ICT refers to the use of computing and telecommunication technologies to facilitate the creation, collection, processing, transmission, and storage of information.
The importance of ICT is its ability to create greater access to information and communication in underserved populations.
What are DIS?
Drug information services are a group of specialized activities undertaken by pharmacists through provision of drug related information to optimize drug therapy by promoting rational use of drugs and medical devices, promotion of evidence based practice, improvement of adherence etc.
Who are Drug Information Services directed at?
These services may be directed at other caregivers but may be provided to the patient too.
Highlight 6 functions of DIS.
- Drug Evaluation: assessment of therapeutic drugs is the most frequent enquiry received at DICs
- Therapeutic Advice: this is more directed at patients and it is geared to answer questions and enhance ‘qualitative adherence’.
- Pharmaceutical Advice: substitution of brand name POMs has become an important jurisdiction of practice for pharmacists as it may account for up to 5/20% savings in certain chronic diseases.
- Education and Training
Education activities may be disease specific (diabetes foot self-care), medication specific (drugs with narrow therapeutic index or other special considerations eg HAART), complications specific (drugs that increase incidence of falls in the elderly eg barbiturates), programme specific (Teaching of young women and mothers on the utility of the rotavirus vaccine and preparation of ORS) etc these activities improve the rational use of drugs and medical equipment. - Dissemination of Information: bulletins, monographs, brochures. the developer must be have editorial skills and use language that is easy to understand without losing quality of the message
- Research: these centers can be actively involved in research e.g. pharmaco-epidemiology (drug utilization studies and pharmacovigilance).
Well-developed DICs may eventually develop critical clinical practice documents like the Cochrane Reviews on different diseases that are widely respected in clinical practice. - Pharmacovigilance and toxicology (Ancillary functions): these are not the core practice in DICs but due to reputation of reliable data aggregation, the centers may serve as aggregators of trusted pharmacovigilance and toxicology reports.
What are PIS?
PIS are a specialized information service providing clinically relevant toxicology information requiring clinical skill to interpret.
These centres provide advice on all aspects of acute and chronic poisoning including extended referrals for cases that may be deemed to have a potential for recurrence, threat of suicide or harm to other persons.
Highlight 4 functions of PIC.
- Answers queries regarding exposure to chemical agents e.g., products, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and natural toxins
- Maintains a database of events reported.
- Manages and organizes training for Emergency Response Services to cope with incidents of mass exposure.
- Maintains a database of chemicals and toxins present in products in the home.
- The center may also be empowered to issue a warning to the general public when recent toxicological data shows a chemical (initially thought to be safe) as dangerous.
Mention 3 resources in a DIC/PIC.
- Personnel
- Facilities and equipment
- Text and database
Mention 6 responsibilities of the manager in a DIC.
- Establishing and maintaining a viable financial base;
- Staff recruitment and coordination;
- Training;
- Promoting the service;
- Identifying and maintaining appropriate resources;
- Data management and reporting;
- Quality assurance and improvement;
- Liaison with colleagues, professional organizations (e.g. PSN DIC, ACPN DIC, FIP, networks, university departments of pharmacy practice, and government agencies;
- Strategic development.
Discuss financing in a DIC.
- A drug information centre should have an independent source of income and status guaranteeing its stability and objectivity.
- Funding from external organisations cannot be accepted unless the centre’s neutrality is guaranteed.
- Services should be provided free of charge to enquirers or through a contract arrangement which does not discourage appropriate use of the service to support quality healthcare.
- Separate charges may be made for specific reports which do not directly relate to individual patient care.
- Capital equipment and management costs should be included in the budget. Sufficient expenditure to maintain up-to-date resources is essential for the long-term viability of the centre.
Mention 6 skill requirements of a drug information practitioner.
- Clinical knowledge and experience
- Communication skills
- Literature searching skills
- Evaluation and weighting of scientific literature
- Critical analysis
- Writing skills
- Summarising complex or conflicting data
- Knowledge of all available resources
Discuss quality assurance in a DIC.
Drug information centres have a responsibility to provide the highest possible standard of service.
To achieve this, assessment of staff, regular review of calls taken and answers provided, and periodic review of resources and procedures are essential.
The process should continuously identify potential improvements and document progress.
Direct output can be monitored through peer review of enquiries. A random selection of enquiries can be regularly reviewed and feedback sought from enquirers. Where possible, the peer review process should include comments from one or more external experts.
Discuss networking in a DIC.
Cooperation between drug information centres can help to optimise limited resources and enhance performance.
Networking can involve two or more centres, and includes regional, national and international links.
Networks provide opportunities for:
- sharing resources and experience;
- establishing standard operating procedures;
- quality assurance programs with external review;
- inter-site training;
- increased awareness of practice in different locations and cultures.
Highlight the 7 steps in the information enquiry process.
- Secure the demographics of the requestor e.g., name, sex, age, address, email, e.t.c
- Obtain background information e.g., skill of requestor, literacy level
- Dteremine and categorise the actual question
- Develop the search strategy and conduct the research
- Perform evaluation, analysis and synthesis
- Formulate and provide a response
- Document the process and response
What does “weighting scientific literature” entail?
It involves objectively deciding if one evidence outweighs the other.
