Keep taking the tablets

Today is Monday, so I have duly received a copy of the Current Awareness Bulletin from the National Prescribing Centre Bulletin. I forward the email each week to a lucky band of people - but you can just as easily read it on their website.

The Centre also has a lively blog that provides a “quick and succinct commentary” on news items related to prescribing. Each entry follows a set pattern. There is a link to the original paper that sparked the comment, some background and details of the study. There is also a "so what" section that explains what - if any - impact the study may have in practice - and an "action" section which says whether or not the NPC recommends you change your practice.

If this has whetted your appetite for pharmacological information then visit the Clinical Knowledge Service's drugs pages. CKS is part of the National Library for Health and is primarily aimed at GPs. While you're looking at the National Library for Health you'll find a section on drugs that links to the BNF, BNF for Children and the National electronic Library for Medicines.

If you want to know about the companies behind the drugs then try PharmaLive Search which lets you just search the bits of the new that are relevant to the pharmaceutical industry. More information on this resource on the Alt Search Engines site (with a nod in the direction of Phil Bradley's blog for alerting me to this).

If finding pharmaceutical and pharmacological information yourself is proving a chore then try your nearest Medicines Information Pharmacist. Essex Rivers staff have their own helpful MI team which produces a regular newsletter.

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