Drug Information Retrieval & Storage
Introduction:
Availability of authentic drug information is the key to promote
rational use of drugs, a well accepted concept in clinical practice
in the developed world. Drug information is an essential element
in achieving health goals and information is an aid to decision
making. The objectives of drug information center is to collect
intormation, to evaluate and compare drugs, to provide an
education and teaching aid for health care personnel, to assist
clinicians in the selection of safe and effective medication and to
enable pharmacists and pharmacy students to develop their
abilities in providing information on drugs and medicines.
Large hospitals develop and staff a new division of the
department of pharmacy which is commonly referred to as 'Drug
Information Center". This new concept in hospital pharmacy
operation is usually located in a separate section of pharmacy,
containing large number of reference texts, journals, reprints and
brochures. They are also equipped with electronic data
processing equipments and staff. Now computers have possible
networking of regional drug information centers made located in
different hospitals. Networking on regional, national, sub
continentals, intercontinental levels had placed Drug Information
Services at a global level.
Drug information is both a body of data and information about
medications and a set of skills and tools that provide pharmacy
professionals with the ability to find, access, understand, interpret,
apply and communicate information and acquire knowledge. The
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body of facts and information pertaining to medications is
generally referred to as "the drug literature". The literature of
pharmacy and pharmaceutics encompasses all aspects of drugs,
beginning with isolation or synthesis, including physical analysis,
bioactivity, toxicology, clinical research, market research, and
economic and social considerations. The drug literature, reflecting
all the individuals who create it and use it, such as chemists,
biomedical scientists, all the various health care professionals,
attorneys, and patients, is vast and complex. Different kinds of
publications are available in the library like journals, abstracting
and indexing publications, books, compendia, monographs,
patents proceedings, reviews, FDA-approved labeling (package
inserts), house organs, newsletters, promotional literature,
government documents, and analysis by consulting services.
Drug information skills coupled with the processes and technology
offered by informatics are part of the solution to mastering
information overload and maintaining the knowledge system that
improves patient care outcomes.
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Drug Information Retrieval Systems:
As a drug moves along the path from discovery to the market and
into worldwide use, data and information about the agent are
created and accumulate. When this information is published, its
value and usefulness to scientific, professional, and patient
communities becomes known. Publication of research results at
each step of the path is essential. The path of drug development
and marketing offers a structure that is useful to scientists and
practioners concerned with compounds of potential therapeutic
value.
The resources themselves are classified as: primary (original
research), secondary (indexing and abstracting services), and
tertiary (textbooks and evaluated information). Individual
resources are now generally available in more than one physical
format; for example, a journal may be available as a paper
publication or as an electronic publication (either individually or as
part of a publisher's electronic journal collection or content
collection). Primary, secondary, and tertiary resources are
available for each step in the path of drug development, but
reporting time increases from each step to the next.
1. Preclinical Drug information:
At this point a compound is recognized and then considered for
potential pharmaceutical or therapeutic usefulness;
researchers will be both consumers of and contributors to the
data information-knowledge cycle that characterizes science.
Initially, in the synthesis and purification phase of drug
development, information about the compound's chemistry and
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physical properties may be both sought and created. Whether
or not the compound has been of interest to other researchers
may be determined by searching public records of grant and
contract awards and also by searching resources that cover
preliminary and early research results. The patent status of the
compound may need to be established.
a) Physical and chemical data: AIDSDRUGS, Beilstein,
CAS Registry, Chemcyclopedia, ChemFinder, Chemical
Abstracts, ChemID plus, Chemindex plus and The Merck
Index.
b) Patents: U. S. Patent and Trademark Office Web Patent
Databases offer free www access,
http://www.uspto.gov/main/patents.htm, to a bibliographic
patent database that uses the most current patent
classification system. The Delphion Intellectual Property
Network (IPN) is a research tool for patent information.
2. Phase V Studies and Post Marketing Drug Information
During the Phase IV Studies and Post Marketing Drug Information
stages a thorough literature search is required to find material
relevant to the clinical use of the drug. This will require not only
searching the basic bibliographic databases such as Biological
Abstracts, EMBASE, IDIS, IPA, MEDLINE, and Science Citation
Index, but also searching the patent literature, using Patent and
Trademark Office Web Patent Databases.
The following bibliographic databases provide access to the full
span of life-science periodical literature, including all stages of a
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compound's development from early brief reports to
comprehensive assessments after years of clinical use.
BIOSIS
EMBASSE
International Pharmaceutical Abstracts
MEDLINE
Pubmed Central
Science Citation Index
S. Resources/sites for Drug Information Information provided
No. and related information
www.ashp.org/s ashp/sec drug shortag American Society of Health-Systemn
Cs.asp Pharmacy- Shortages: Drug Shortage
Resource Center with updates/ management of
shortages
2 www.cdc.gov Centers for Disease Control: Public health
guidelines, vaccine and travel infomation, and
CDC publications
3 www.fda.goy Food and Drug Administration: Drug and
Biologics information (approvals, shortages,
Orange Book, news, etc.). Be sure to click
CBER for biologics and CDER for drug
information.
www.home.mdconsult.com Full-text books and journals, drug information,
news, CME, and patient leaflets. Rcquires fee
and password
www.guidelines.goy National Guidelines Clearinghouse: Publie
resource for evidence-based clinical practice
guidelines established by the governments
Agency for Heathcare Research and Quality.
www.health.nih.gov National Institutes of Health: Information on
discase states, rescarch, and federal health
programs from the NIH
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez National Library of Medicine: PubMed - a
searchable listing of abstracts of medical
literature
8 www-medlib.med.utah.cdu SpencerS. Eccles Health Sciences Library:
Library catalog, full-text joumals, searchable
databases, ctc.
9 www.uuhsc.utah.cdu/pharmacy/druginf The University of Utah Hospital & Clinies
Drug Information Service: Information about
our
publications,
service, and drug shortage
updates. ManyI <sare for internal useonly.
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General Drug Information
www.medlineplus.gov Site links to patient drug category and health
10 monographs, medical dictionaries, health
professional directories and other resources such as
organizations and health libraries.
www.health.nih.gov National Institutes of Health: Information on
11 disease states, research, and federal health programs
from the NIH
www.Csmwm.org Specialize in Depression Help Drug Reaction.
12 Depression Drugs,Allergy Medicines , Drug
Safety and an array of other products and services
Investigational Drugs
www.clinicaltrials.gov National Institutes of Health-Clinical Trials:
13 Directory of clinical trials in progress. Can search
by disease state orspecificagent.
www.phrma.org/newmedicines/| Information on drugs in the pipeline. Can search by
disease state and therapeutic categories. Good
14 summary articles on topics related to drug
development.
www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials National Cancer Institute: Specific for clinical
15
trials to treat cancer
www.paticentadvocate.orgl Patient Advocate Foundation: Patient resource
16 i.e. it means to participate in clinical trials and use
investigational drugs.
www.bioscorpio.com Lists of investigational drugs in pipeline by disease
17 state. Major limitation is must pay for additional
information.
www.centerwatch.com Provides trial data and email-notification services to
18
patients interested in participating in clinical trials.
Professional investigation drug information can be
found after subscribing to the service for a
substantial fec.
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Drug Literature:
The concept of drug information service or drug information
center is an attempt to document drugs by abstracting information
about them. The information about drugs is collected from various
sources which are available. In 1972 Walton et al modeled the
drug literature as a pyramid with the primary literature forming the
base of the pyramid, the secondary literature interfacing and
serving as a bridge from the primary literature to reference works
(tertiary literature).
1. Primary Literature:
Primaryliterature contains the first written accounts of
original research. In terms of size, the primary literature is
probably larger than either the secondary or tertiary
literature. It is the original information presented by the
author without any evaluation by the second party, for
example, articles published in journals, dissertations,
conferences, etc.
2. Secondary Literature:
In this original information is modified, condensed,
commented upon by other persons like review articles,
abstracts, text books, etc. These include Indexing and
Abstracting services, Evaluated Secondary Resources and
Internet search engines.
3. Tertiary Literature:
In this information is gathered from primary and secondary
sources and arranged in such a manner to give coupled
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information. The tertiary literature is a distillation and
evaluation of data and information first presented in such
primary literature sources as research reports, meeting
presentations, and journal articles. But just as characteristic,
the tertiary is the most accessible, easiest to use, and
perhaps the most used of all information resources.
Information searches generally start with a perusal of books,
reviews, and handbooks. These include Aggregated and
linked references such as MICROMEDEX Systems and
StatRef.
Advantages of Computerized Literature Retrieval:
Save time, space, money
Save effort, person-hours and greater eficiency.
Online Computerized services offer Term Searching of
Fields, Controlled vocabulary and Indexes
Online Computerized services offer Search Commands for
Creating search sets, Boolean operation, Word searching
and Search limiting.
Online Computerized databases offer Computerized greater
Precision.
Qualitatively different kinds of searches are possible.
Easier to assess quality of information found More cues:
authorship, institutional affiliation, reputation, references,..
Processing of search results: Sort, rank, report, export,
integration with Intranet/portal,
. .
Highly Focused information that is actionable
They offer evidence for their claims.
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Provides great reading with a wealth of knowledge.
Broadened perspective.
Most articles contained in journals include graphs, tables,
images & photographs, videos, etc., which help illustrate the
information being portrayed.
Unlike in the print copies days when you could only access
information physically in libraries, academic journals online
come with the option of free downloads which allow you to
save material to your PC or Smartphone.
Online journals are like encyclopedias, offering information in
large quantities to scholars. There's a wide variety of
databases to source information from, but it's so much
easier to access this information online because all you need
is a computer and internet.
Academic journals include real life case studies which are
excellent sources of in-depth information and knowledge.
Academic journals online come with several research
options, which helps widen your scope. They alow you to
explore both quantitative and qualitative research, for
optimum results. With both, you can analyze statistical data,
opinions, verbal data, etc.
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Use of Computerized Retrieval
Today computers provide us with powerful tools for drug
information handling for collection, organisation, classification,
retrieval and distribution. Computers have been used since the
late 1960s for the storage of large databases such as library
catalogues and bibliographic references. Development of optical
storage media such as CD-ROM has given us the possibility of
storing large quantities of text, graphics, pictures, and sound at a
low cost. These new optical memories can function as distributed
stores for encyclopedias, databases, books etc. This has
stimulated the development of local information systems.
These three aspects of computerized information retrieval:
o Library catalogues.
o Online databases.
o Databases on CD-ROM.
TYpes of databases
There are a number of types of databases:
1 .Library catalogues catalogues covering the holdings
(books, reports, journals conference proceedings, etc.) of
one or more library.
2. Bibliographic databases containing bibliographic
references, with or without abstracts.
3. Reference databases, for example, current research
projects, handbooks, encyclopedias, product suppliers, etc.
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4. Factual databases or data banks containing information,
often in numerical form, which can be used directly, e.g.
chemical structures, tables, terminology.
5. Full-text databases which contain the complete version of
the text of given publications.
Computerised library catalogues
Computerised library catalogues were first introduced during the
late 1960s. The online catalogue, known as the Online Public
Access Catalogue, or OPAC, has gradually become more user
friendly with the use of menus and simple commands. Access for
users is now often in the form of a Web (World Wide Web)
interface.
The computerised library catalogues allow you to:
Check to see if a certain book or journal is available at the
library or
See which books are available on a specific subject
See whether or not a book is currently available or out on
loan.
Access to databases
Information from the primary sources has been collected together
and organised under subject headings and authors in reference
databases. These can be accessed in a number of ways:
Searching online from a database mounted on a host
computer from a commercial information retrieval service
(IRS). This requires a password.
By means of a searchable compact disk CD-ROM database.
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From a database with WwWN interface mounted either locally
or available from a remote server.
Online information retrieval from databases is the acquisition of
information from a distant computer via a terminal or PC, involving
an interactive dialogue between enquirer and computer. The
computer handles a number of databases stored in electronic
form, consisting of references to journal articles, conference
papers, reports, books etc, which the Information Retrieval
Service (IRS) or 'host' makes available to interested parties, such
as university libraries, on a commercial basis.
CD-ROMs and WWW interfaces have been designed for end-
users. They are relatively user-friendly and the search software is
(more-or-less) self explanatory. Today, CD-ROMs often are
mounted on a server so in reality the user will not be able to
notice any differences between using online databases or a CD-
ROM
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