"Drug information center is one of the departments of the hospital and gives the recent knowledge and information about the medical, pharmacy field at any time to the physicians, staff of the hospital and to the citizens”.

1. DRUG INFORMATION
SERVICE
AND
DRUG INFORMATION
BULLETIN
Prepared by:
Ms. Shivanee Vyas
Assistant Professor
SVKM’s NMIMS, School of Pharmacy and Technology
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2. "Drug information center is one of the department of the hospital and gives the recent
knowledge and information about the medical, pharmacy field at any time to the physicians,
staff of the hospital and to the citizens”.
DRUG INFORMATION SERVICE
NEED of DIC:
1. To give first aid suggestions.
2. To get knowledge about recent developments in medical and supportive services.
3. To get an idea about emergency treatments.
4. To clarify the queries about medical and supportive fields.
5. To store the information and retrieve it.
6. For adjustment of better drug therapy.
7. To provide vital and necessary information to physicians and medical persons.
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3. DIS/DIC should be run by the pharmacist who should have the following abilities:
1. He should be able to edit the information.
2. He can collect the data, quickly and accurately.
3. He should have good communication skills
4. He should have knowledge about the research method and about the sources of
information.
5. He should have knowledge about the medical, pharmacy, and nursing fields.
6. He should attend the seminars, conferences and should collect essential
information.
7. He should have the ability to study abstracts, literature, journals and also should be
able to deliver the knowledge to others.
8. He is a member of PTC and should have knowledge about various aspects of drugs.
Abilities/Qualities required by a Pharmacist to run
DIS/DIC
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4. Location of DIS/DIC
• It should be away from the inpatient and outpatient department.
• This department should be near to pharmacy department and also near to the hospital
library.
• It should provide an essential environment for reading books. Thus, it should be having
negligible disturbances.
location, requirements, and facilities required for the drug
information center/DIS
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Requirements and Facilities of DIC
• This department should provide good furniture, adequate books, audiovisual arrangements
for conduction of seminars, photocopy, e-mail, fax, computers, telephones.
• It should provide adequate electric and water facilities.
• The dimensions of this center are dependent on the size of the hospital, type of hospital,
number of staff utilizing the library, number of publications to be kept in and overall utilization
by citizens.
• The reading area provided to the reader should be minimum 25 to 30 sq. feet.
• It should have official books like several pharmacopoeias, Remington's pharmaceutical
sciences, national formulary, various journals.
• This department should be open for 24 hours.
• It should have facility to conduct seminars for giving recent knowledge to the staff.

5. 1. Collection and storage of information: By reading the abstracts, journals, books, the head of this
center obtains information and store it in the computers.
2. Retrieval of information: Whenever required the information is read by the staff of the hospital
to get knowledge of recent development and to clarify queries.
3. Evaluation of information: The information is read by the head of this center and edited by him
and published in the drug information bulletin.
4. As a community centre: This center communicates with other hospitals and arranges seminars,
lectures in that community to increase the educational standard of the public. It also clears the
queries asked by citizens.
5. As an information center: It provides information about emergency treatment, first aid
treatment, and also poisons and toxic substances.
6. Information for research: This department provides information to the staff involved in research
work.
7. Information regarding reported ADRs: This department provides information regarding reported
ADRs to other hospitals so that further ADRs do not occur.
Functions of DIC/DIS
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6. • Contents of DIB:
1. It contains recent information about the drugs,
developments, and dosage forms.
2. It contains information about any ADRs reported in the
hospital.
3. Question-answer type section.
4. Puzzles.
5. Latest information about developments in medical,
paramedical services.
6. It should be published by hospitals for internal circulation
only.
7. The information in the bulletin is collected and edited by
the head of PTC.
It is the bulletin printed and published by the DIS of the hospital which contains the latest
developments in medical science, new drugs introduced, update of drug interactions, and adverse
drug reactions.
DRUG INFORMATION BULLETIN
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7. Sources of Information
The sources of information for DIB are as follows:
a) Primary sources: It contains the information published by the authority and it is
generally called raw information. This information is nothing but articles in journals,
abstracts, etc.
b) Secondary sources: It contains comments or opinions or modified information. The
information is collected from pharmacopoeias formulary textbooks, etc. i.e. original
information is selected, modified, rearranged, and condensed.
c) Tertiary sources: These are outputs of primary and secondary sources and arranged in a
manner to represent a composite of the available information.
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Importance/Need/Significance of DIB
1. It is the link between DIC and other health professionals.
2. It is the way of communication for giving the information to the physicians, pharmacist
and also within a very short time.
3. It is important for keeping the medical staff of the hospital alert about the recent
knowledge and developments.
4. A regular publication of the bulletin will update the knowledge of the patient care staff
on the development in their area of specialization.

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