E-drug: Drug Information Training (cont)
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Dear Philip
The Medicines Information Centre is an unbiased drug Information
Centre situated in the Department of Pharmacology at the University
of Cape Town South Africa. The Centre was established in 1980 and is
currently dealing with over 6000 calls from health professionals all
over South Africa and its bordering countries. I attach our
general training programme. It is a month's training course and
includes a copy of our drug information manual and a drug
information reference text book.
Should there be specific topics you would
like included, we would be very happy to try and accommodate you.
Please do not hesitate to contact me directly for further information
on: tmaurer@uctgsh1.uct.ac.za
[Tanya Maurer has supplied this information about the 4 week course
in South Africa. For information about the course program, please
contact her directly. BS]
DRUG INFORMATION COURSE
MEDICINES INFORMATION CENTRE
Aims
The Course is designed to:
- Provide an awareness of existing drug information services and specialists
-Teach skills to enable the participants to elicit the necessary
background information from the enquirer to answer a DI query
competently
-Teach skills in retrieval of information from available resources
-Teach basic skills in evaluating information and supplying a
suitable verbal reply
-Enable participants to evaluate the scientific literature
-Familiarise participants with and provide a working knowledge of
basic and advanced drug information resources, including textbooks,
computerised databases and the Internet.
-Provide basic training in the use of computers as tools in drug information
-Teach written and oral communication skills, including the
preparation of bulletins/newsletter.
-Provide an understanding of the need for quality assurance in drug
information and the peer review system (provide the tools to develop
quality assurance and peer review systems)
-Provide an understanding of how to set up and run a Drug Information centre
Objectives
Upon completion of the required drug information training, the
participant should be able to:
- Describe the role and value of the drug information provider
- Use a systematic approach to resolve drug information problems
- Elicit medical and other background information for the purpose of
providing an appropriate answer to a drug information query
- Describe the types and functions of basic drug information resources
- Demonstrate the effective use of basic drug information resources
- Demonstrate efficient literature search strategies
- Demonstrate the ability to selectively use other drug information
resources including other drug information centres, the
pharmaceutical industry, poison centres and libraries
- Apply appropriate drug information to patient care situations
- Demonstrate effective oral communication skills
- Compile a 1-2 page newsletter or bulletin on current issues
- Do basic critical appraisal of the scientific literature
- Interpret and combine information from multiple sources into a
concise written or oral answer
- Demonstrate proficiency in the use of electronic information databases
- Describe the publication process and the structure of biomedical literature
- Critically analyze and evaluate biomedical literature of all types
- Have a basic knowledge of the application of statistical methods in=20
literature
- Assess the drug information resources and needs of his/her practice=20
setting, as well as the needs of the health professionals he/she=20
supports.
Tanya Maurer
University of Capetown
South Africa
tmaurer@uctgsh1.uct.ac.za
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