Judgmental questions processed by a drug information center

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Drug Information Services
• Clinical Pharmacy

Background:

• Drug information centers (DICs) are crucial for managing therapeutic problems.
• Assessing the nature and frequency of questions handled by DICs is essential for resource allocation.
• Understanding the proportion of complex, judgmental queries informs service delivery models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the number of judgmental questions received by a university-based drug information center.
• To evaluate the implications of question types on the optimal structure of drug information services.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective analysis of 720 questions handled by a pharmacy-operated DIC over three months.
• Classification of questions based on whether they required judgment, data integration, and experience.

Main Results:

• Less than 5% of the 720 total questions were classified as judgmental.
• The majority of inquiries were likely non-judgmental, requiring straightforward information retrieval.

Conclusions:

• The low volume of judgmental questions suggests current DIC models may not be optimally efficient.
• Developing more regional drug information centers, rather than solely hospital-based ones, could improve resource utilization.
• A shift towards regional centers may better serve the need for specialized drug information expertise.