National Training on Drug

Information Service

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Equipment Directorate

Federal Ministry of Health
 Chapter 7:
Role of DIS in Pharmacy service activities
 Enabling Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, participants will be able to explain

the role of DIS in:

• Pharmacovigilance

• Drug and Therapeutics Committee

• Clinical Pharmacy service

• Drug Supply Management

Outline
 What would be the Role of DI pharmacists in:

o Medication safety monitoring,

o Drug and Therapeutics committee

o Clinical Pharmacy Services activities.

o Drug supply management activities

What specific roles does the DIS
play in the pharmacovigilance
activities?
“Reporting of Adverse Drug Events”

• Group reading
What do you think the role of
DIS in the DTC activities?
The role of DIS in formulary Management
• Compile information resources
• Perform evaluation using established criteria
• Obtain expert opinion and recommendations
• Write medicine monograph describing the evaluation and
results
• Develop drug list recommendations and present to the
DTC meeting
• Make a decision at the DTC meeting
• Disseminate the results of the evaluation,
recommendations and DTC’s decision
 What irrational use of antimicrobial
practices contribute to AMR?
 What roles could DIS play in
the prevention and containment
of AMR?
 What roles could DIS play in the clinical
pharmacy service.?
Reasons to manage medicines properly
• Pharmaceuticals are part of the link between the patient
and health services.
• Consequently, their availability or absence will have a positive or
negative impact on health.

• The issue of medicines is not the responsibility of health

workers only.
• It has political, economic and social dimensions.

• Poor medicines management obstructs access to medicines

results in wastage and health hazard.

• Access to medicines is a fundamental human right.

What roles could DIS play in the Drug Supply Management?
 Summary
• What adverse drug events would be reported?
• When should ADE be reported?
• ADE does constitute a serious problem, increasing
morbidity and mortality and health care costs worldwide.
(Y/N)
• The DI Pharmacist provides a variety of support services
in the healthcare facility. Mention DIS supports to:
• DTC
• Formulary system
• Clinical pharmacy
• Drug supply management.
National Training on Drug
Information Service

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Equipment Directorate

Federal Ministry of Health
 Chapter 4:
Production and Dissemination of Medicine-Related
Information
 Objectives

• Chapter Objective:
• to prepare and disseminate medicine and health
related information to healthcare providers and
other clients.

Enabling Objectives:
• To identify steps in professional writings
• To Prepare medicine information materials
• To disseminate medicine information materials 
 
Rules to apply

• Organize the information before starting to write

• Do sufficient research before getting started

• Put yourself in the reader’s position

• Use proper spelling and grammar

• Try to make the write-up entertaining; enjoyable & easy

to read

• Document should look presentable

Rules to apply cont.

• Make it simple and direct; KISS (Keep It Simple and

Stupid)

• Avoid using abbreviations or acronyms

• Use an appropriate ‘voice’

• Be sure to give credit

• Work through document in the easiest order

• Edit the document thoroughly

Writing Styles

Pure technical style- to other professionals in the same

field

Middle technical style- writing for readers with a variety

of technical backgrounds

Popular technical style- anything meant for the general

public
Compositions of a document

What are the components of a typical

document?
Newsletter- Basic steps
• Defining the audience
• Defining the goals
• Identifying constraints-
• Time,
• Manpower,
• Money,
• Resource

• Appearance
• Consistency
Criteria for newsletters
Appearance  Color-mix and contrast
 Use of pictures (relevance, position, etc.)
 Use of space (congested vs. enough white space)
Substance of  Objective
the message  Unbiased
 Current
 Availability and quality of reference
 Flow of information

Components of  Vol, issue #, date

 Title (concise and catchy
the newsletter  Use of left column
 Availability of appropriate sections
 Disclaimer
 Address of DIS/editors
 Monographs:
• provide detailed description, evaluation, and comparisons
about medicines.

• helps in the development of a medicine formulary

• provide a balanced and comprehensive analysis of a

product that helps in the formulary management and
clinical use of a product including its pharmacoeconomic
analysis.

• can be customized from the drug monographs available in

the literature or prepare a new one from scratch.
Dissemination of medicine
information
Once produced, newsletters and monographs can be
disseminated using the following avenues:

• Posting on the walls and notice boards

• Via email

• Giving newsletters to concerned departments in person

• On organized events, etc.

Summary
 Professional writing is a skill necessary for every health
professional.
 Newsletters, drug alerts, and monographs are common DI
materials.
 Knowing the audience and keeping written items clear,
concise, complete, correct, and in the appropriate format
will ensure proper information dissemination.
 All the work done in preparing newsletters would be for
nothing if the readers do not get the newsletter.
National Training on Drug
Information Service

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Equipment Directorate

Federal Ministry of Health
 CHAPTER TWO
Sources of Drug Information
 Objectives

Chapter Objective
• To enable participants to identify, systematically search
and evaluate DI sources.

Enabling objectives
• To Identify DI resources relevant to different pharmacy
practice areas.
• To Apply appropriate search strategy for use with
electronic databases.
• To Evaluate DI resources to determine appropriateness of
information.
Outline

• Sources of drug information

• Systematic search techniques
• Evaluating drug information sources
Common Tertiary Sources
Evaluating Drug Information Sources

• Does the author have appropriate experience/expertise to

publish in this area?

• Is the information likely to be timely based on publication

date?

• Is information supported by appropriate citations?

• Does the resource contain relevant information?

• Does the resource appear free from bias and blatant errors?
Common secondary sources
Common secondary cont’d
Common secondary cont’d
Boolean operators as a second search
strategy
A physician asked if Metoclopramide could increase milk
production.
He also requested to compare the effect of Domperidone
with Metoclopramide on breast milk production (output)

• Which Boolean operators will you use to respond for the

following requests?
• How could you search results that exclude “formula
milk”?
• American Journal of Health-system Pharmacists (AJHP)
• Annals of Pharmacotherapy
• Hospital Pharmacy Formulary
• New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)
• Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)
• British Medical Journal
• Annals of Internal Medicine
• Ethiopian Pharmaceutical journal
• Ethiopian Journal of Public health
• Ethiopian Medical Journal
Common primary reference journals
Alternative Sources of Information

What alternative information sources

do you know?
Internet Searches
Website accrediting organization
The following criteria should be used when
determining quality of online material
 Is the source credible, without a personal stake in
promoting one treatment or product?

 Is the information accurate and current

 Does the site link to other nonaffiliated sites that provide
consistently good information

 Is the information appropriately detailed and referenced

 Is it possible to identify the author of the site to contact

with additional questions or comments?
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