• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.282-287
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• 2010

Appropriate drug information is essential in pharmaceutical care practice. In recent years, educating patients with their prescription and drug therapy is becoming an increasingly important aspect of health care. Appropriate drug information has been shown to improve patients' adherence to their medication and the results of pharmacotherapy. The purpose of this study was to study patients' sources of drug information and their preferences in Korea. This study was a 11-questionnaire survey conducted from February 8, 2010 to February 25, 2010. Major sources of drug information used by respondents, proportions of respondents who received drug information on administration, dosage, indication, or warnings and precautions, sources of drug information which patients prefer, and the reasons of their preferences were studied. Of the 303 respondents, the most common sources of drug information were pharmacists (29.7%), doctors (23.8%), and the Internet (17.2%). There were significant differences according to sources of drug information in proportions of respondents who received drug information on administration, dosage, indication, or warnings and precautions. Patients preferred pharmacists as a drug information source the most (38.9%), and the reasons were reliability (72.0%) and easy to use (28.0%). Based on the results of this study, further studies should be conducted to establish the best way to provide appropriate drug information for patients and improve the results of pharmacotherapy.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.334-343
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• 2013

Purpose: This study aims to investigate consumers' demand of and perspective on drug information domestically available and uncover hurdles that they faced while utilizing information. Methods: We conducted a survey of 101 consumers, face-to-face after obtaining informed consent. Chi-squared, or Fisher's exact tests, and multivariate logistic models were used to investigate the association between participants' perceptions and characteristics. Results: As results, participants showed the highest demand for "Adverse effects >90%"; "Drug interactions/Dosage/Drug-food interactions/Indication >80%", and utilized package inserts (52%), doctors (41%) and pharmacists (36%) most often as information sources. Generally, the most common difficulty consumers suffered with was that "it is hard to understand (51%)". With public sources of drug information, sixty one percent of participants were "unaware of the provision of information", resulting in strikingly low usage rates (5~11%). Subgroup analyses indicated that the older (${\geq}50$ years) and the disadvantaged might have been placed in the blind spot of information mostly developed online (p<0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion, public sources of drug information that have been developed online might fail to meet consumers' demand. Greater efforts should be made to balance the development of the information sources between online and offline, and to increase accessibility of the established information sources.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.89-108
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to investigate drug information sources which influence physician's prescriptions, and to compare the differences of drugh information sources between private practitioners and hospital physicians. In addition, the ultimate goal of this study is to provide better quality of drug information for both groups of physicians through the professional drug information system. 264 physicians, including general practitioners and all types of specialists who were working in hospitals and private clinics in Taejon and Chungnam area, participated in this study which was conducted by mail. The results are summarized as follows ; 1. Both physician groups received drug informations mainly from medical journals, but there were differences in secondary sources of drug information. Namely, hospital physicians got drug information from annual meetings and textbooks, and private practitioners got it from detail men and colleagues. 2. Drug effect was the first consideration for drug selection in both physician groups. But, in the 2nd consideration, private practitioners concerned about the price, insurance and rebates, but hospital physicians were not. 3. Only 9.2% of the private practitioners satisfied with the sufficiency of drug information, whereas 22.0% of hospital physicians satisfied with it. The most insufficient area of information was drug interaction in both groups and 91.9% of the physicians suggested that a professional drug information system should be introduced. 4. Both physician groups had contacted with detail men frequently. However, it was rare for them to contact with a pharmacist. This phenomenon was more severe in the case of private practitioners. 5. Neither physician groups knew very much about drug informatio centers. However, they would be willig to participate if a professional drug information system were established. Also, they indicated that the information most required was drug interaction.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.166-190
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• 1998

This study presents the status on drug prescription for clinic outpatients' bronchitis, gastritis, and gastric ulcer, and also the physician factors that affects their prescriptions. In this research project the physician factors are as follows: their demographic features, their work related features, education related features, drug information related features and drug promotion related features. The variables in drug prescriptions are drug expenses, daily drug expenses, days of medication, the highest price of the drugs used and the number of the different drugs used. Analysis of the use of prescription drugs was performed on NFMI(National Federation of Medical Insurance) 1994 medical expense claim data. Data on physicians' characteristics were collected by mailing surveys. Patients with secondary diseases were excluded. In this study, 388 adults with bronchitis, 1,038 children with bronchitis, 1,158 patients with gastritis, 369 patients with gastric ulcer were included. The older physicians tend to allow the lower drug costs: this explains that the older doctors who are more experienced less depend on the medicines. It can be also explained that doctors are likely to use the medicines that had been used for their intern and resident practice/training period. General practitioners give more intensive prescription compared to specialists. And specialists prescribed medicines to patients for longer period. The doctors' prescriptions for patients are largely affected by commercial sources. So objective and reliable sources for drug information is needed for patients' benefits. Physician factors explain better at the daily drug expenses, the drug price and the number of different drugs than days of medication. Gastric ulcer are better explained by the prescription model adopted in this study than other diseases.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.220-227
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• 2012

Kidney and liver are the major organs of metabolism and excretion of drugs. Renal and Hepatic impairment may affect the pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and the safety of drugs. Adjusting the dosage based on organ function is the essential role of pharmacists. However, differences have been noted on the recommended dosage among the literatures. We compared and analyzed the recommendations of 4 literature sources which are commonly used for dosage adjustment. From April, 2011 to August, 2011, we selected data on recommendations for dosage adjustment for impaired renal and hepatic function of 100 drugs through a protocol. We analyzed the definition terms of renal and hepatic impairment, recommendations for dosage adjustment, evidenced references in four literature sources: Korean National Formulary (KNF), American Hospital Formulary System Drug Information (AHFS), Micromedex (MM) and Drug Prescribing of Renal Failure (DPRF). We further examined the data homogeneity by comparing how drugs that required no adjustment according to one source were categorized by the other. Sources use different definition terms among themselves except DRPF. Presence or absence of evidenced references about renal/hepatic functional states are KNF (0%/0%), AHFS (78%/62.6%), MM (87.5%/65.6%) and DPRF (93.2%/no recommendation) respectively. Recommendations of specific dosage and dosing interval are KNF (24%/13%), AHFS (39.6%/12.1%), MM (50%/17.7%), and DPRF (55.4%/no recommendation) respectively. Regarding the data homogeneity, the differences were remarkable. Drugs with no adjustment according to AHFS were categorized to be adjusted/ contraindicated by KNF, MM, DPRF and the values were (44%/5.6%), (22%/0%), and (36%/0%) in renal function, (39%/6.5%), (19%/3.2%), and (no recommendation/no recommendation) in hepatic function respectively. Our study shows remarkable definite variation in definitions and recommendations about definition terms, information of dosage and interval, presence or absence of evidenced references. Especially for KNF, quantitative recommendations on dosages and dosing intervals should be made in the near future. To maximize the drug effect and safety and to minimize the heterogeneity of the literature sources, reviewing at least two sources are suggested when recommending the proper dosage adjustment based on organ function.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2009

Adverse drug reactions (ADR) caused by inappropriate prescription are responsible for major socioeconomic loss. Drug-drug interactions (DDI) has been recognized as a major part of ADRs and, therefore, healthcare professionals should prevent possible DDIs to minimize preventable ADRs. This study aimed to examine DDI information in drug information references and Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) drug labeling information. Drug ingredients from the formulary of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service in Korea (HIRA) were included for the study. DDI information source used for the study were Micromedex Drugdex and Drug Information Facts (DIF) with the DDI severity level of "moderate" or more. The DDI information in KFDA drug labeling were collected and compared. Drug ingredients were classified with KFDA Drug Classification and ATC Classification of WHO for the analysis. Among the total 1,355 drug ingredients satisfying inclusion criteria, 738 ingredients involved at least one DDI, which was described in Micromedex and/or DIF. Drug Ingredients of 176 involved DDI only described in KFDA drug labeling, but not Micromedex nor DIF. Drug ingredients of 35 which DDIs were described in Micromedex or DIF did not have DDI based on KFDA drug labeling. Micromedex and DIF retrieved 7,582 and 3,071 DDIs, respectively 57.6% and 58.5% of DDIs were also described in KFDA drug labeling. Central nervous system (CNS) drugs, cardiovascular system (CVS) drugs and the antiinfectives appeared to have higher frequency of DDIs among all drug classes. The highest number of DDIs with high severity level ("contraindicated" or "major") were the DDIs of CNS drugs. The antiinfectives are the second drug group having serious DDIs. The DDI pairs of the CNS drug and the antiinfective had the highest contraindication risk (13.6%). DDI information from Micromedex and DIF were not consistent with the result that only 465 ingredients' DDIs are common in both literature (total DDI numbers were 715 vs 488, respectively). And 1,652 DDI information are common in both references among 7,582 vs 3,071 DDIs, respectively. Only 55.2% of DDI information in the database contained in the KFDA drug labeling. Prescribers and pharmacists should pay attention to the drugs for CV system, CNS and infections because of higher risk of possible DDIs compared to other drug classes. KFDA drug labeling is not likely to be recommended as a good information source for DDI due to significant inconsistency of information. Drug information providers should be aware that DDI information from different sources are not consistent and therefore multiple references should be used.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.93-103
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• 2011

This paper has aimed to identify marketing variables which affect physicians' prescription of drug. Based on a literature review this paper derives the three factors (indirect commercial source, direct commercial source, academic information source) of information sources that physicians rely on for medicines, the three factors (research supporting activity, marketing supporting activity, medicine information supporting activity) of promotion activities physicians prefer, and the four factors (indirect quality of medicine, direct quality of medicine, experience of using medicine, price and design of medicine) of prescription criteria physicians use. Then it investigates using canonical correlation analysis whether or not physicians' prescriptions are affected by the information sources, the promotion activities, and the type of physicians. From the canonical correlation analysis this paper derives the meaningful three canonical functions of prescription for drugs. The first function explains the prescription which is insensitive to marketing activities, the second function does the prescription which is sensitive to them, and the final function does the prescription which is not affected by them.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.248-255
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• 2013

Objective: This paper was aimed to investigate the current labelling trend of tar color additives in infant's drugs used in Korea and other countries. Method: The current labelling system of the tar color additives in infant's drugs was investigated using inserted papers for drug information of infant's drugs as well as three drug information internet sites popular in Korea including internet sites of foreign countries of USA, UK, Japan, and China for infant's drug information. Results: Among 325 drugs registered as syrup form for infant's drugs (sources, http://www.health.kr), 4 drugs indicated tar color related information on the internet and only 2 drugs indicated tar color additives' name. And from the investigated results of 76 inserted papers for infant's drug information, among 31 drugs containing tar dyes, in only 19 drugs the tar color additives' names were notated. Among 6 drugs which do not contain tar dyes, only 1 drug was notated as 'Dye-Free'. Conclusion: For advanced labelling system in Korea, we proposed the below guidelines. [1] The name of tar color additives used in infant's drugs should be notated even in drug information on internet sites. [2] All drug ingredients used in infant's drugs need to be separately notated as active and inactive species on both internet sites and inserted papers. [3] 'Dye-Free' notation should be mandatory for infant's drugs which do not contain tar color additives in drug information on the internet sites as well as inserted papers.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.18.1-18.10
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• 2019

Prediction of the relations among drug and other molecular or social entities is the main knowledge discovery pattern for the purpose of drug-related knowledge discovery. Computational approaches have combined the information from different sources and levels for drug-related knowledge discovery, which provides a sophisticated comprehension of the relationship among drugs, targets, diseases, and targeted genes, at the molecular level, or relationships among drugs, usage, side effect, safety, and user preference, at a social level. In this research, previous work from the BioNLP community and matrix or matrix decomposition was reviewed, compared, and concluded, and eventually, the BioNLP open-shared task was introduced as a promising case study representing this area.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.529-537
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• 2009

Drug-resistant tuberculosis in children has important implications for both the patients and tuberculosis control programs. In Korea, among all new patients, the isoniazid resistance rate was 9.9% and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis rate was 2.7% in 2004 (in patients aged 10-19 yr, the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis rate reached 2.1%). Tuberculosis in pediatric patients is difficult to diagnose because many children have nonspecific clinical signs and the detection rates of acid-fast bacilli smears and cultures are low. Therefore, every effort should be made to identify adult sources and obtain information on drug susceptibility because symptomatic adult patients have a higher chance of culture positivity and drug-susceptibility patterns are the same in most adult-child pair patients. Korean children are at significant risk of drug-resistant tuberculosis. As the isoniazid resistance rate is greater than 4% among the new cases in Korea, a four-drug regimen should be considered for initial treatment of children with active tuberculosis, unless drug-susceptibility test results are available. Treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in children is challenging and there are only few available data. Tuberculosis control programs should be continuous with specific focus on pediatric populations because they can serve as reservoirs for future active cases. Further studies are needed regarding treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in children.