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

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.320.2-321
• /
• 2001

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

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

• Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society Conference
• /
• 2007.10b
• /
• pp.17-21
• /
• 2007

Drug discovery is a long process with a low rate of successful new therapeutic discovery regardless of the advances in information technologies. Identification of candidate proteins is an essential step for the drug discovery and it usually requires considerable time and efforts in the drug discovery. The drug discovery is not a logical, but a fortuitous process. Nevertheless, considerable amount of information on drugs are accumulated in UniProt, NCBI, or DrugBank. As a result, it has become possible to try to devise new computational methods classifying drug target candidates extracting the common features of known drug target proteins. In this paper, we devise a method for drug target protein classification by using weighted feature summation and Support Vector Machine. According to our evaluation, the method is revealed to show moderate accuracy $85{\sim}90%$. This indicates that if the devised method is used appropriately, it can contribute in reducing the time and cost of the drug discovery process, particularly in identifying new drug target proteins.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
• /
• 2022.05a
• /
• pp.276-278
• /
• 2022

All drugs have a specific action in the body, and in many cases, drugs are combinated due to complications or new symptoms during existing drug treatment. In this case, unexpected interactions may occur within the body. Therefore, predicting drug-drug interactions is a very important task for safe drug use. In this study, we propose a deep learning-based predictive model that learns using drug information documents to predict drug interactions that may occur when using multiple drugs. The drug information document was created by combining several properties such as the drug's mechanism of action, toxicity, and target using DrugBank data. And drug information document is pair with another drug documents and used as an input to a deep learning-based predictive model, and the model outputs the interaction between the two drugs. This study can be used to predict future interactions between new drug pairs by analyzing the differences in experimental results according to changes in various conditions.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.322-323
• /
• 2001

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.30-41
• /
• 2001

Recently, the use of electronic drug information databases has been increased alternative to printed references. However, databases vary widely in quality and quantity of drug information provided and many questions have arisen about their accuracy, completeness, and reliability. This study was designed to compare and evaluate the drug information contained in four Korean drug information databases which are available on CD-ROM and internet. Four Korean drug information databases selected to be evaluated were eKIMS, Datapower, KPA Standard Drug Information and Korean Drug Formulary. Databases were searched and evaluated from August 10 to September 30, 2000 by the same trained searcher to minimize the bias. The database evaluation form was developed for objective evaluation of each databases in terms of credibility of database, convenience of use and other characteristics. The second form was developed for quantitative and qualitative assessment of the drug information provided by the databases. The results of the study showed that there were no significant differences in 4 databases in terms of convenience of use and other characteristics. However, for credibility of databases, Korean Drug Formulary was significantly superior to all other databases (P<0.05). It showed that information provided by Korean Drug Formulary was the best in terms of pharmacokinetics, chemistry, comparisons and eKIMS was the best in terms of drug identification (P<0.05). For accuracy and completeness of information provided, the study could not find a significant difference between 4 databases (P>0.05).

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.57 no.2
• /
• pp.150-159
• /
• 2013

A study was performed to identify current drug shortages, assess impact of drug shortages on public hospitals and patients, and investigate needs of pharmacists for a drug shortage list. An e-mail survey was sent to the pharmacists of 13 national public hospitals. Total 61.5% of public hospitals has 10 or fewer drugs a year in short supply. Shortages involved mood drugs, anti-tumor drugs, analgesics, antibiotics and etc. in 2012. Among them 75.0% was prescription drugs and the other 25.0% was non-prescription drugs. 79.2% was domestic products and 20.8% was imported drugs. Only 12.5% was injections. Less than 3 pharmacists usually spent within 3 hours managing one drug shortage. Since a single item for a certain medicine may raise risk of drug shortages, it's needed to consider developing manuals, laying up medicine stocks and holding plural medicines for drug shortages in public hospitals. Main information resources of drug shortages are wholesalers or manufacturers. But the information appeared to be not only inadequate but also too late for appropriate activities. A survey of pharmacists revealed that overall 84.6% of respondents were in need of the drug shortage list. They expected it to be conducted to take proper measures for the drug shortage and to improve patient healthcare outcome and convenience. This study will contribute to improving public health by promoting stable supply of drugs and repairing the information delivery system.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.139-148
• /
• 2005

Appropriate drug classification is important fur rational drug consumption. This study was conducted to evaluate the appropriateness of current drug classification system and suggest possible ways for improving the system. Nonprescription drug market has been decreased. Since total 27,962 products had been classified (prescription 17,187 vs. nonprescription 10,775 products, 61.5% vs. 38.5%) in July 2000 for implementing separation of drug prescribing and dispensing system, there are no classification changes. Reclassification is not motivated by product holder and regulatory system did not lead classification change either. Consumers' ease access to some nonprescription drugs is demanded. But point of public awareness and cultural and health environmental views, saff drug use rather than advantages from broad supply of nonprescription drugs is more critical. We concluded that current 2-categorized (prescription and nonprescription) drug classification system is appropriate, and addition of general sale category should be approached carefully with long term Preparations such as establishment of better nonprescription drug consuming infrastructure by public information provision and education for improving public medicinal knowledge and strengthening self medication guidance, and review of current classification status of marketed drugs and switching possibilities. For systemizing and encouraging reclassification, introduction of regulatory renewal system as a continuous reevaluation program which is the best way to review appropriateness of drug classification as well as provision of detailed guidance for industry including policy, requirement and process fer reclassification application, are necessary.