Short communication: drug information unit as an effective tool for promoting rational drug use

The rapid developments in medical and biological sciences have led to emergence of huge information on drugs and various diseases. But accessing this vast information has limits and rational selection of drugs and utilization of drugs have become more complex. Information regarding the various aspects of drugs may be conveyed by drug information units which run only in specified tertiary care institutional units, to the physicians who treat the patients in the hospital and to the general practitioners outside, in emergencies and in normal situations.

The queries of clients were obtained by means of phone calls from 9.00 a.m to 5. 00 pm, during 1 month's stay in a DIU. A resident of Clinical Pharmacology collected necessary data on therapeutic problems of patients (age and sex of the patient, other drugs which were taken, present diseases, whether department was in PGIMER, the place etc.). After solving the problems by using electronic databases or hardcopy sources like established facts in standard text book of medicine , pharmacology or in standard articles and with a final approval from the senior clinical pharmacologist, resident delivered the information to the clients as early as possible, without any delay (by phone).

From the results, it was found that around 59% of the phone calls were regarding drug interactions and adverse reactions, 11% were regarding efficacy and that 30% were regarding the preferred routes and dosing. We concluded that the information that most of the healthcare professionals aimed to get, were the various drug interactions which had taken place during their therapeutic interventions.