The importance of providing drug information has increased with the expansion of pharmaceutical care.In order to provide appropriate drug information to healthcare professionals,pharmacists have to understand their needs in this respect and be familiar with the procedure for answering typical questions.In the present study,we analyzed all of the questions (9,999)recorded by the drug information center of Kyushu University Hospital and the answers to them in the period from 2001 to 2007.The questions were from doctors (59.3%),pharmacists (21.5%),nurses (15.4%),and others (3.9%).The most frequent questions were on compatibility and stability of injections (18.8%),selecting drugs (13.2%),and dosage and administration (9.8%).We therefore made information on the compatibility and stability of injections available to other pharmacists via our intranet.We felt it was useful to clarify healthcare professionals’needs for drug information and develop a system enabling drug information to be used more easily.
