Medical Information

 Is a term used in place of Drug information

 Conveys the management and use of information on medication therapy and to signify the
broader role that all pharmacists take in information provision.

Drug Informatics

 Is a term that Emphasizes the use of Technology as an integral tool in effectively organizing,
analyzing and managing informatics on medication and use in patients.

Drug Information Center

 A source of selected, comprehensive drug information for staff physicians, and dentist and other
health care professional to evaluate and compare drugs.
 Drug information can be stored, retrieved, evaluated and disseminated in order to respond to
specific questions to assist in the evaluation of drugs use in the hospital.

Pharmacy Informatics

 Informatics pharmacists are involved in the design, implementation, customization ad support

of health information systems and technologies.

Informatics Pharmacists

 Is a dual specialist
 Knowledgable about both pharmacy practice and informatics.
 Is able to analyse pharmacy practice from analytical design perspective.
 Is able to analyse health informatics technologies form a clinical/operational perspective.

Uses and application of Pharmacy Informatics

 Support Clinical Services

 P&TC activities
 Publication
 Education
 Drug Usage evaluation
 Investigational drug research
 Coordination of reporting Programs
 Poison information

Factors that led to Evolution of Pharmacist’s role as Medication Information Provider

 Adverse Drug Events

 Integration of New Technologies
 Focus on EBM (Evidence Based Medication) and Drug Policy Development
  Sophistication of Medication Therapy
 The Self-Care Movement

Roles played of an Informatics Pharmacist:

 Active participation and leadership in all medical informatics activities that support medication
use
 Education of pharmacy students, Pharmacist, Pharmacy technician, Health care colleagues, and
administrators;
 Research on the core areas of medical informatics
 System identification
 Vendor selection
 Identification of system, requirements
 Application design, development, implementation and maintenance.
 Development and implementation of standards for medication-related vocabularies
 Work closely with information systems and pharmacy staff to develop system programming
requirements while understanding system capabilities and limitations
 Develop and oversee databases related to medication management systems
 Identify, suggest solutions to, and resolve system or application problems
 Assess medication-use systems for vulnerabilities to medication-errors and implement
medication-error prevention strategies,
 Actively participate the development, prioritization, and determination of core clinical decision-
support systems, and
 Assist in mining, aggregating, analysing and interpreting data from clinical information systems
to improve patient outcomes

Competencies/Characteristic

 Strong understanding of pharmacy practice

 Knowledgeable about the medication use process
 Basic understanding of database design function
 Current with relevant standards, regulations and initiatives
 Ability to anticipate future needs and challenges
 Ability to think about the “end user”
 Ability to teach and guide others’
 Communication skills
 Project management skills
 Technology oriented
 Innovative
 Analytical