General medical practitioners' perceived use of drug information sources with special reference to drug information centres

Abstract

Abstract This study reports the current perceived use of available sources of drug information for general medical practitioners. The sample frame, of 463 GPs practising in Derbyshire, England, on January 1, 1990, provided a 74 per cent response rate to a pre-piloted questionnaire. Two printed sources, the Monthly Index of Medical Specialities and the British National Formulary (BNF) plus one personal service, fellow colleagues, were by far the most frequently used. The estimated average minimum number of days per year on which personal information services were consulted was 28.51 days compared with 63.83 days for non-personal, printed sources. Thus, if GPs are to be guided by independent sources then the BNF must be considered a prime vehicle. Drug information centres (DICs) were ranked last with 56 per cent of GPs having consulted such a source within the previous year. Use of DICs could not be predicted from GPs' characteristics or demographic data. Interviews with 101 of 106 randomly selected GPs generally confirmed questionnaire findings. However, only 41 per cent perceived themselves as users of DICs. Collation of queries from two local centres showed 25 per cent were known to be users. From interviews, discrepancies were seen to arise from accessing DICs outside the sample frame boundary plus confusion of DICs with poisons centres and hospital pharmacy departments. Thus, for use of DICs, questionnaire techniques may be unreliable unless source definition is considered. If using DICs, GPs very significantly had lower concurrent use of community pharmacists, GP colleagues and hospital consultants for general drug information