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Published on: December 11, 2016
PharmGuide: your guide to free online drug information
Amy J Chatfield1, Trish Chatterley, Jean L Siebert
1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-9130, USA. amychatf@usc.edu
Medical Reference Services Quarterly
|April 24, 2013
Summary
PharmGuide offers a curated directory of reliable online drug information. This resource helps users find critically appraised, high-quality drug information websites, ensuring accuracy and authority.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Information Science
Background:
- The internet offers numerous drug information resources, but quality and accuracy vary significantly.
- Librarians, pharmacists, and the public face challenges in identifying authoritative online drug information.
- A need exists for a reliable, curated resource to navigate the complex drug information landscape.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce PharmGuide, an annotated directory of high-quality, freely available online drug information resources.
- To facilitate the discovery of critically appraised and quality-vetted drug information websites.
- To provide a practical tool for librarians, pharmacists, and the public seeking dependable drug data.
Main Methods:
- Development of PharmGuide involved establishing specific quality criteria for resource inclusion.
- Resources were critically appraised to ensure authoritativeness and accuracy.
- The directory is annotated to provide users with concise descriptions of included resources.
Main Results:
- PharmGuide provides a centralized, reliable access point to vetted online drug information.
- Usage statistics demonstrate the utility of PharmGuide in practice.
- Examples illustrate the application of PharmGuide in various information-seeking scenarios.
Conclusions:
- PharmGuide effectively addresses the challenge of finding trustworthy online drug information.
- The resource enhances information retrieval for healthcare professionals and the public.
- PharmGuide serves as a valuable tool in the evolving drug information landscape.
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