Comparing professional and consumer drug information centers

Providing drug information to consumers is an essential component of medical and pharmaceutical care. In recent years, profit-based consumer-oriented drug information centers (DICs) or drug hot lines have developed to fill this need. This study compared the services and information provided by DICs for consumers with those provided by DICs for health care professionals. The two consumer-oriented DICs provided-accurate and professional information, similar in content to that provided by the health care professional DICs. Although the data were too small for statistical analysis, it appears that the consumer-oriented DICs offer a valuable service.