Implementing a Process to Review Product-Specific Misinformation in Online Drug Information Compendia

Abstract

Health care professionals and consumers often use online drug information compendia, which are intended to be user-friendly, readily available, accurate, and up-to-date. While these resources can be valuable, it has been shown that some compendia contain inaccuracies and outdated information, motivating the Medical Services (medical information) Department at Purdue Pharma LP to implement a periodic, standardized review of select online drug information compendia. Monographs within compendia for up to 9 Purdue products were reviewed and compared to their current Full Prescribing Information, with a focus on identifying safety-related misinformation. Content correction requests for nearly 1000 errors were submitted to 7 compendia clinical editors. This surprisingly large number of errors highlights the need for compendia to better maintain accurate product monographs, as well as for pharmaceutical companies to proactively and periodically review them for misinformation. Based on these findings, an overview on how the pharmaceutical industry may implement a drug information compendia review process is provided.

Keywords

drug information compendia product information corrections compendia errors drug compendia accuracy electronic drug information

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