Speaker
Description
Abstract
Drug information resources are the discovery, utilization, and management of information in medications usage. Despite the importance and the availability of diverse resources, little information is known about the types of resources commonly used by pharmacists in Iraq. The objectives of this study were to determine the type of drug information resources do the pharmacists used and the common drug information questions they faced during their work in community pharmacy. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in different Iraqi provinces and online self-reported survey was administered via Google Form Software to convenience samples of graduated pharmacists who were working in a private community pharmacy and having at least one year of experience between February 27 and May 15, 2021. The researchers received 201 usable surveys. British National Formulary was used by 47% of the surveyed pharmacists to find specific information, followed by "Pharmacotherapy(s) and Applied Therapeutics" (16.9% for both). On the other hand, internet was used by 93% of the surveyed pharmacists and Google search engine (65%) and Medscape application (62%) were frequently surfed to find specific drug information and 81% of pharmacists trusted in this information and passed them to consumers. Drug safety in pregnancy and lactation was among the most frequently received questions (60.7%). In conclusion pharmacists prefer to surf specific internet websites to collect specific information about medicines and they referred to pharmaceutical textbooks if available at their pharmacies to get such information. The pharmacists are more often accessed by consumers that follow pharmacists for drug related questions.
| Field/discipline | Clinical/Social Pharmacy |
|---|---|
| Intend to be published in the conference journal (IJPS)? | Yes |
| Has the manuscript been published? | Not published |
