Drug information centers: An overview to the concept

Abstract

Drug Information Centers (DIC) have an important place in the health care processsince they provide independent and updated information. A search was developedin Medline, Science Direct, Academic Search Complete, LILACS and AcademicGoogle in order to know the state of the art of DIC around the world. Regarding toa timeline, the first European DIC was created in 1960 and studies that describedlocal situation were identified in 1996 and 2001. Thereafter, in the United Statesthe first DIC was created in 1962 and 3 studies that describe DIC characteristicsand changes trough time were identified between 2003 and 2008. Moreover, DICswere created in Singapore in 1980 and in Venezuela in 1981. In India was createda DIC in 1997. Subsequently, the WHO performed workshops in 2006 in orderto create new centers in this country. In Asia was conducted a study in 1996 thatidentified 4 DIC. Concerning Latin America were found studies that describe localDIC from Brazil (2001) and Costa Rica (2003). Also, the network of Latin Americanand Caribbean DICs (REDCIMLAC) was created in 2011. In all consulted studies the DICs features were described including type of questions, professionals and infrastructure among others. Some of these studies included a comparison with  the WHO technical document.