Abstract :
The purpose of this study was to assess the pattern of drug information queries received by the drug information center (DIC) of a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India. A retrospective review of drug information queries received by the DIC over a period of 8 months (November 2009 to June 2010) was performed. Data were collected for various parameters such as status of enquirer, mode of receipt of query, purpose and type of query, mode of reply, and references used. A total of 70 drug information queries were received; 38 (54.28%) during ward rounds through clinical pharmacist, followed by direct access (22; 31.42%). Most queries were from the Medicine Department (42; 60.00%) followed by Pediatric Department (23; 32.85%), Pharmacy (4; 5.71%) and Surgery Department (1; 1.42%). Post graduate students utilised the service to a greater extent (50; 71.42%) followed by clinicians (16; 22.85%). The references used for answering the queries were textbooks, Micromedex®, database websites and journals. Although the number of drug queries was small, our pharmacist at the DIC had attempted to provide unbiased information to health care professionals to help improve therapeutic decision making
