Computer use in Canadian drug information centres

In July 1988, a survey was conducted to determine the extent of computer use by Canadian drug information centres. A questionnaire, mailed to 36 major DI centres, yielded an 89% return. Computers were being used by 75% of the responding centres (65.6% personal computers, 9.4% mainframe). Word processing was the most popular computer application, followed by formulary maintenance, online literature searching, compiling workload statistics, pharmacokinetic calculations, storing answered requests, and storing journal article citations. Medline was the most common database accessed; the National Library of Medicine was the most popular vendor. Compact disc read only memory systems were used by 18.75% of centres. Some respondents reported developing internal programs for drug information.