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© 2007 University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Department of Pharmaceutical Care
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Drug
Information and Medication Use Evaluation
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| Drug Information Center
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The Drug
Information Center provides UIHC staff with information about
commercially available and investigational drugs, drug-drug
interactions, drug-laboratory interactions, drug
identification by tablet/capsule markings, foreign drug
identification, natural/herbal products, injectable drug
compatibility, adverse drug reactions, safety of drug use
during pregnancy and breast feeding, and other
medication-related questions. The Drug Information
Center responds to over 5000 information requests annually.
Additional services provided by the Drug Information Center
include: support to the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Subcommittee
process through development of new drug monographs and other
reports, publication of the P&T
News and the RX
Update newsletters, and communication of drug
availability issues to UIHC staff.
The Formulary
and Handbook of the UIHC is the official publication of
the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Subcommittee. It is
available as an up-to-date electronic reference at www.formularyproductions.com/uihc/.
Access to the on-line Formulary and Handbook is through
a secure website and is restricted to UIHC staff. The
Formulary and Handbook contains information about
policies and procedures related to the use of medications
within UIHC, a listing of currently stocked medications,
guidelines for the appropriate use of medications, and
additional information submitted by Hospital departments and
clinical services.
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The Drug
Information Center contains over 250 medical and
medication-related textbooks, the major medical and pharmacy
journals, and several medication-related databases and
retrieval systems. Examples of these electronic retrieval
systems include the Iowa Drug Information Service, Micromedex
Healthcare Series, Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database,
CliniSphere, a material safety data sheet (MSDS) database, as
well as Medline and other healthcare-related database search
capabilities. The University of IowaÕs Hardin Library
for the Health Sciences is located across the street from the
Drug Information Center.
The Drug
Information Center also serves as an important teaching site
for Doctor of Pharmacy students from the University of Iowa
College of Pharmacy during their experiential training, and
for Pharmacy Practice Residents and Specialized Residents as
part of their training within the Department of Pharmaceutical
Care.
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| Medication Use Evaluation
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Medication use
evaluation (MUE) initiatives are developed in collaboration
with medical staff who have an expertise in a specialized area
of clinical practice. Each initiative is approved by the
Pharmacy and Therapeutics Subcommittee and sent to each of the
Clinical Service Chiefs for review prior to implementation.
The process provides an opportunity for all medical staff to
have input into each MUE initiative. The MUE Program staff
develop policies and procedures, supply pertinent background
information, provide educational inservices to hospital staff,
create physician communication forms, conduct
outcomes-oriented clinical research, and create pocket cards
and newsletter articles to provide ongoing education for
hospital staff. Additionally, a clinical service liaison is
identified from each of the various clinical services who is
responsible for seeing that reports generated from the MUE
program are shared with colleagues in his/her clinical
service.
The primary
focus of MUE initiatives at UIHC is to favorably influence
prescribing practices to maximize the appropriate and
effective use of medications at the time of prescribing,
thereby achieving improved patient outcomes. Although the MUE
process may be perceived by some to be a series of
problem-identification or "slice-of-life" drug reviews done by
the pharmacy, at UIHC the MUE process facilitates the
provision of clinical services to our patients. A key
component of our MUE process is the provision of educational
resources so that relevant medication-related information is
available at the time when decisions regarding drug therapy
are being made rather then after the fact.
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Last modification date:
5/29/2007 9:38 AM | |
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