Dataset Information

A question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To assess a question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites developed for drug information centres to answer complex questions effectively.

Design

Descriptive study with comparison of two subsequent 6-year periods (1995-2000 and 2001-2006).

Setting

The Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS).

Participants

A randomised sample of QAPs from the RELIS database.

Primary outcome measure

Answer time in days compared with Mann-Whitney U test.

Secondary outcome measure

Number of drugs involved (one, two, three or more), complexity (judgemental and/or patient-related or not) and literature search (none, simple or advanced) compared with ?(2) tests.

Results

842 QAPs (312 from 1995 to 2000 and 530 from 2001 to 2006) were compared. The fraction of judgemental and patient-related questions increased (66%-75% and 54%-72%, respectively, p<0.01). Number of drugs and literature search (>50% advanced) was similar in the two periods, but the fraction of answers referring to the RELIS database increased (13%-31%, p<0.01). Median answer time was reduced from 2 days to 1 (p<0.01), although the fraction of complex questions increased from the first to the second period. Furthermore, the mean number of questions per employee per year increased from 66 to 89 from the first to the second period.

Conclusions

The authors conclude that RELIS has a potential to efficiently answer complex questions. The model is of relevance for organisation of drug information centres.

SUBMITTER: Schjott J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3307033 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

A question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study.

Schjøtt Jan J Reppe Linda A LA Roland Pål-Didrik H PD Westergren Tone T

BMJ open 20120315 2

<h4>Objective</h4>To assess a question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites developed for drug information centres to answer complex questions effectively.<h4>Design</h4>Descriptive study with comparison of two subsequent 6-year periods (1995-2000 and 2001-2006).<h4>Setting</h4>The Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS).<h4>Participants</h4>A randomised sample of QAPs from the RELIS database.<h4>Primary outcome measure</h4>Answer time in day ...[more]

PMID: 22422916

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Project description:BackgroundNational pharmacovigilance centres (national centres) are gradually gaining visibility as part of the healthcare delivery system in Africa. As does happen in high-income countries, it is assumed that national centres can play a central coordinating role in their national pharmacovigilance (PV) systems. However, there are no studies that have investigated whether national centres in Africa have sufficient organizational capacity to deliver on this mandate and previous studies have reported challenges such as lack of funding, political will and adequate human resources. We conducted interviews with strategic leaders in national centres in 18 African countries, to examine how they link the capacity of their organization to the outcomes of activities coordinated by their centres. Strategic leaders were asked to describe three situations in which activities conducted by their centre were deemed successful and unsuccessful. We analyzed these experiences for common themes and examined whether strategic leaders attributed particular types of resources and relationships with stakeholders to successful or unsuccessful activities.ResultsWe found that strategic leaders most often attributed successful experiences to the acquisition of political (e.g. legal mandate) or technical (e.g. active surveillance database) resources, while unsuccessful experiences were often attributed to the lack of financial and human resources. Stakeholders that were most often mentioned in association with successful experiences were national government and development partners, whereas national government and public health programmes (PHPs) were often mentioned in unsuccessful experiences. All 18 centres, regardless of maturity of their PV systems had similar challenges.ConclusionsThe study concludes that national centres in Africa are faced with 3 core challenges: (1) over-reliance on development partners, (2) seeming indifference of national governments to provide support after national centres have gained membership of the World Health Organization (WHO) Programme for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM) and (3) engaging public health programmes in a sustainable way.

Dataset Information

A question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study.

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Primary outcome measure

Secondary outcome measure

Results

Conclusions

Publications

A question-answer pair (QAP) database integrated with websites to answer complex questions submitted to the Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Centres in Norway (RELIS): a descriptive study.

Similar Datasets

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