Independent
Drug Bulletins available on line:
Busy
clinicians need distilled, concise, reliable, and readily available
information about all types of therapy, especially drugs.
Distilled and concise, because most practitioners have little time
to read original evidence or to perform their own detailed analysis of
large volumes of information. Reliable, because many sources of information reflect biases that
may differ from patients’ best interests. Readily available, because space and time constraints preclude a
large office library or prolonged searching.
In order to meet these
needs of clinicians some independent Drug Bulletins are available on line.
Here are links to some of these bulletins:
Therapeutics Letter
Australian Prescriber
The Medical
Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics
MeReC Bulletin
Therapeutics Letter
This
is a bi-monthly letter targeting identified problematic therapeutic issues
(brief, simple, practical messages). The process involves a literature
review and development of the message by different working groups of the
Therapeutics Initiative. A draft of the letter is reviewed by specialists
who are expert in the particular therapeutic area and members of the
Scientific Information and Education Committee before the letter is
disseminated.
Therapeutics
Letter can be accessed at:
Australian Prescriber
Australian
Prescriber is an independent review of therapeutics. It aims to provide
short direct and didactic reviews on a range of topics, which will assist
the readers in their professional duties. It can be accessed at:
You
can also register to obtain Email notification when a new issue of Australian
Prescriber is available on their site.
The Medical
Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics
The Medical Letter on Drugs and
Therapeutics is an independent, peer-reviewed, non-profit
publication that offers unbiased critical evaluations of drugs - with
special emphasis on new drugs - to physicians and other members of the
health professions. Published every other week in a four-page newsletter
format, it carries no advertising and is supported entirely by
subscription fees. A typical issue appraises two or three new drugs in
terms of their effectiveness, toxicity, cost, and possible alternatives.
Occasionally, the Medical Letter publishes an article on an entire class
of drugs, a new non-drug treatment or a new diagnostic aid.
The
Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics can be accessed at:
This
bulletin is available against a subscription however it provides some
articles free of cost in its Public Reading Room
MeReC Bulletin
The
MeReC Bulletin has been in production since the early 1990s. Eleven
volumes, each of twelve issues, have been published to date. Distributed
free of charge to GPs and pharmacists in England and Wales, it is used to
update knowledge, inform prescribing practice, as an educational tool and
reference source.
From
2001, six bulletins are to be published a year. Focussing on clinical and
therapeutic topics, the Bulletin supports the work programme of the
National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) by:
Addressing
issues of significance that have not been identified for referral to NICE,
but nevertheless have major implications for patient care and requires
action to be taken across the NHS.
Providing
interim information on topics of significance that might be relevant for
possible future referral to NICE. Fulfilling
any crucial short-term information needs around topics that are included
in the NICE work programme, but which are some time away from completion.
The
bulletin can be accessed at:
