Drug Information Centre

DIC

Drug Information Centre of the Faculty of Pharmacy and University Hospital Hradec Kralove.

Our structure and history

Drug Information Centre (DIC) was founded in 1994 at the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove, Charles University (FAF UK). Since 2005, it has been a joint workplace of academia and the University Hospital Hradec Kralove (FN HK) based on a contract signed between the Dean of FAF UK and the Director of FN HK. DIC is the only university-run centre in the Czech Republic.

DIC was established by prof. RNDr. Jiří Vlček, CSc., PharmDr. Hana Müllerová, Ph.D., and PharmDr. Petra Matoulková, Ph.D. for research and experiential learning for postgraduate students in the area of professional medicines information along with drug information service for healthcare professionals and lifelong education of pharmacists and physicians. PharmDr. Petra Matoulková organized DIC until 2014, subsequently it has been managed by PharmDr. Petra Rozsívalová and PharmDr. Kateřina Malá, Ph.D.

Our mission

The main mission of DIC is to reinforce pharmaceutical care of patients by timely and accurate answers to medicine enquiries concerning various aspects of pharmacotherapy with respect to the principles of evidence-based medicine. DIC provides answers to a range of enquiries with prime focus on rational use of prescription medicines as well as the over-the-counter drugs. Drug information service is offered to medical and nursing staff, pharmacists, academic scientists and other healthcare professionals only. Along with medicines enquiries, DIC actively takes part in postgraduate training and education and publishing interesting enquiries.

Who we are?

DIC is located at the Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy FAF UK. The medicine enquiries are answered by pharmacists and pharmacy students trained in medicines information search strategies, information resource use and critical interpretation of data. They are specialists in clinical pharmacy, doctoral students of Clinical and Social Pharmacy study program, pharmacists and clinical pharmacologist from FN HK.

All members have medicines information skills to optimise medicines use including 1) asking the right questions to determine the nature and extent of clinical problem, 2) utilizing the most uptodate resources of information on medicines comprising expert opinion and pharmaceutical company in-house data, 3) using critical evaluation and clinical decision-making skills and professional judgement to formulate an answer to the clinical problem, 4) using effective communication skills to deliver expert advice on medicines.

Drug information service

DIC aims to promote the safe and effective use of medicines across the range of healthcare settings. This role is undertaken especially through the medicine enquiry answering service, provided free of charge. Numerous printed and online medicines information resources are available, both factographic databases or specific resources concerning drug handling and formulations (e.g. administration of medicines via enteral feeding tubes, alternative/herbal medicinal products, compatibility of medicines, drug interactions, drug use in liver and renal impairment, paediatric drug handling, palliative care, drug use in pregnancy and lactation, psychopharmacotherapeutics etc.). The answers are supported by access to a range of bibliographic and citation databases.

DIC mainly focuses on the following fields of pharmacotherapy: indications, contraindications, off-label use and dosage for specific drugs, drug interactions and adverse drug reactions, drug use in pregnancy and breastfeeding, drugs use paediatrics and the elderly, drug management in liver or renal impairment, identification of medicines and information on sourcing of medicines etc.

Our publicity & projects

Over 25 years of DIC activity, it can be stated that more than two thousand medicines enquiries were solved within DIC, whilst some of our interesting results have been presented at international and national conferences, e.g. Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy of René Mach, the International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology & Therapeutic Risk Management, Symposium of European Society of Clinical Pharmacy.

March 2020 was very different for everyone because of COVID-19 pandemic. Our DIC joined to the announcement by the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) and the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) for best practice examples depicting the efforts that pharmacists in different setting for COVID-19 patients across Europe. DIC of FAF UK and FN HK has demonstrated how team of clinical pharmacists helped to provide timely and comprehensive medicines information regarding prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection as well as compiled Essential drug list for community pharmacies in view of coming drug shortages. The new aspect of this service was that our DIC made the full enquiries and answers available to be disseminated to pharmacy professionals via the Czech Chamber of Pharmacists. To our knowledge, we are the first Drug Information Centre in Czech Republic that provided such service in COVID-19 pandemic.

You can access the videos by clicking on the following link:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCjOzzti48bRJcrxyihNlEfA/videos

You can access the video about our DIC on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzewwBKr3ks

© 2023 Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové | Website information