Drug information centers provide health care professionals with up-to-date and unbiased information on drugs. They also provide support for evidence-based medicine and rational use of medications. Some of these services are funded by the state. These centres are operated by pharmacists.
The drug information centers are also training sites for post-doctoral residents. Students at these institutions are trained in the appropriate evaluation of the medical literature. Depending on the request, the information can be retrieved through electronic or verbal channels.
Researchers performed a retrospective analysis of queries received by clinical-pharmacological DICs. They identified a total of 594 queries. This includes general queries as well as patient-specific queries. Patient-specific queries are questions related to a specific pharmacological therapy that evaluate its advantages and disadvantages.
Compared with general queries, patient-specific queries were significantly more frequent. Most of these were based on PDIs. ADRs, indications/contraindications, and drug-drug interactions were the three most common categories of PDI queries.
In Germany, clinical pharmacologists lead DICs that provide DI to other healthcare professionals. However, these DICs lack recent reports from central Europe. Moreover, some DICs limit their assistance to health care professionals in their states.
Another DIC that provides DI is the AiDKlinik. Its website provides accurate information about prescription medicines. The service has an experienced team of pharmacists and clinical pharmacists.
Pharmacists can also operate their own drug information services. Some of them provide services internationally. Alternatively, students can join rotational programs in these centers.