The Massey Palmer Bedsole, Sr. Drug Information Center (DIC) is a unit within the Division of Clinical Affairs and Outreach. The primary mission of the DIC is to improve patient care in the state of Alabama. This is accomplished by providing on-demand consultative services, generally free of charge, to Alabama health professionals on any aspect of drugs, drug therapy, and pharmacy practice. The DIC provides these services live from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and via voice mail, email and website requests.
The DIC is well equipped with subscriptions to approximately 50 medical and pharmacy journals and newsletters, and about 400 volumes of texts and reference books. In addition, there is access to comprehensive electronic drug databases including Micromedex, Clinical Pharmacology, Facts and Comparisons eAnswers and Lexi-Comp. The Auburn University Libraries provide a large collection of biomedical books and journals, as well as extensive access to literature search systems and databases such as Medline and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts. The DIC also has a partnership with the University of South Alabama Biomedical Library and its extensive literature resources.
Two drug information specialist pharmacists with extensive training and experience in drug information services staff the center. Fourth-year student pharmacists (P4), perform many of the center’s services under the direct supervision of the faculty specialists. Every question or request is thoroughly researched, resources vetted, and responses written and well documented.
With the widespread availability of the Internet and other electronic information systems, the DIC has become even more of a specialized referral center. Since many people have easy access to simple information, it is more common for the DIC to field the more difficult and complex questions on a routine basis. Callers include practicing pharmacists, physicians, and nurses from the community or hospital settings. They also receive requests from professionals in a variety of less traditional practice sites, such as home infusion and state government offices.
In addition, the DIC performs more specialized projects such as medication utilization review (MUE), pharmacy and therapeutic committee monographs, antibiograms and others. The DIC also provides publication support to the professional community in the form of monthly newsletters (AU InforMed), pharmacy continuing education articles for the state pharmacy association journal (Alabama Pharmacy) and other occasional articles. The DIC’s staff and students also provide educational presentations on topics of drugs and medication safety to professional groups in the community.
The DIC is a year-round consultation center for any question on drugs, pharmacotherapy, and pharmacy practice. It has state-of-the-art information resources available and the expertise to make the most effective use of them.
The Drug Information Center (DIC), a unit within the Clinical Affairs and Outreach division, is located in the Auburn University Harrison College of Pharmacy and operates between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Central Time, Monday through Friday. To contact the DIC, health care professionals should call 334-844-4400. A telephone answering machine is used to receive calls after hours. In addition, drug information questions can be received by fax at 334-844-8366 and e-mail at hsopdi@auburn.edu
Dr. Bernie Olin
Associate Clinical Professor
Director, Drug Information Center
olinber@auburn.edu
Dr. Wesley Lindsey
Associate Clinical Professor
wtl0001@auburn.edu
The DIC maintains an up-to-date, pharmacotherapy-oriented reference collection of pharmaceutical, medical and scientific journals, textbooks, and computer databases. In addition, the DILRC subscribes to numerous abstracting, indexing and computerized information retrieval services. These resources serve to answer questions from the following categories:
Overall Mission: To provide unbiased drug information as a support to Alabama health care professionals for use in patient care, education and research.
Education Mission: To provide pharmacy students and residents with the opportunity and training to learn and develop drug information skills.
Research Mission: To collaborate and contribute to the areas of drug information practice, drug policy and medication criteria development and drug education research.