RxInformatics.com

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I recently gave a lecture on meta-analyses as part of a Drug Literature Evaluation course.  One example I typically use to illustrate the importance of critically evaluating literature combined with the potential impact of the media is, “Is Cybermedicine Killing You” – The Story of a Cochrane Disaster.  It is an editorial published back in 2005 in response to a fatally flawed Cochrane paper that was ostensibly published as a review of, “interactive health communication applications” (IHCAs).  The review’s plain language summary described it as “computer-based programmes for people with chronic disease”.

In my mind, there are four key observations about that situation:

I was first alerted to the release of the new book Pharmacy Informatics via a blog post by @poikonen.  I took advantage of Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ to check out the chapter titles and introduction.  That was enough for me, so I ordered it. I am really, really glad I did.

This textbook was created by three faculty members at the University of California, San Diego School of Pharmacy (along with area contributors) to accompany their forward-thinking pharmacy informatics course.  The authors bring a lot of credibility to the text as Phil Anderson is a very well known pharmacist in drug information and informatics circles, Susan McGuiness is a pharmacy librarian who is quite active in AACP, and Phil Bourne is the pharmaceutical scientist who is one of the more clever and creative fellows I have come across.