Evaluation of electronic information resources for questions received by a college of pharmacy drug information center

Abstract

This study evaluated different electronic information resources by comparing the time required to find an answer to a drug information question in addition to the ease of use, comprehensiveness, and availability of information in three databases: DRUGDEX®, Lexi-Drugs®, and the Internet search engine AltaVista. The study was conducted at the Drug Information Center of the College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudia Arabia. Answers to 100 questions were searched using all resources, and results for each question were compared to original answers. The mean time to find the answer was 1.70± 1.19, 1.39 ± 0.93, and 5.85 ±4.52 minutes using DRUGDEX, Lexi-Drugs, and AltaVista, respectively. In terms of ease of use, DRUGDEX easily answered 78% of questions versus 95% and 55% answered easily by Lexi-Drugs and AltaVista, respectively (P <.05). For comprehensiveness, 77% versus 64% and 73% of the questions were well covered by DRUGDEX, Lexi-Drugs, and AltaVista, respectively (P>.05), while respective availability of answers was 77% versus 74% and 86% (P >.05). The study concluded that DRUGDEX and Lexi-Drugs are faster, more efficient drug information databases. All three databases were comparable regarding comprehensiveness and availability of information. Using the Internet through the search engine AltaVista in addition to print drug information resources appears to be an acceptable alternative to DRUGDEX and Lexi-Drugs when they are not available.