Comparison of information obtained from a Usenet newsgroup and from drug information centers

Responses to drug information questions posted on the Internet Usenet pharmacy newsgroup sci.med. pharmacy were compared for accuracy with responses from drug information centers (DICs). Twenty-five questions were randomly selected from the past five years' continuing-education sections of the Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and possible answers were determined on the basis of corresponding articles. The questions were randomly submitted to sci.med.pharmacy from various e-mail accounts over a 10-week period. The same questions were submitted by telephone to randomly selected DICs. The correctness of responses was judged by a panel of four pharmacists. The questions received 31 responses from sci.med. pharmacy and 38 from the DICs. The responses from sci.med.pharmacy received 38 (31%) judgments of correct and the responses from the DICs, 85 (56%). A significantly smaller proportion of drug information responses from the Usenet newsgroup sci.med.pharmacy were judged as being accurate compared with responses from DICs.