User-Friendly Website Helps Pharmacists Find Medical Information

A new medical information website is providing pharmacists with easier access to new and updated drug information from the major players in the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharma Collaboration for Transparent Medical Information, known as phactMI™, is a nonprofit consortium comprised of medical information (MI) departments of multiple pharmaceutical companies that has created a free website to provide accurate and fast information about medications.

The website, phactMI.org, was developed as a result of collaboration among information specialists, Patrick Reilly, CEO of phactMI told Drug Topics. “A handful of us with our own medical information companies got together and discussed how we might more easily provide accurate, timely medical information to health-care providers.” From there, he said, the small consortium reached out to colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry to determine they all might work together to make this happen. The end result is phactMI.org.

“Pharmaceutical companies’ MI departments have a wealth of reliable, accurate, and timely data, including information that may not be easily accessible through other sources, Reilly said in a written release. “This is why phactMI developed an easy-to-access website that helps health-care providers access our data, knowledge, and expertise from a single website.”

The website, which can be accessed at no cost, provides the users with a direct link to the websites of any of the 26 member companies, Reilly explained.  The user may access information about specific drugs or establish communication with an MI specialist. Information that may be accessed includes-but is not limited to-information on drug interactions, stability/compatibility, and dosage and administration.  

“If a health-care professional is searching for information about a specific drug but doesn’t know who makes it, he or she can type the name of the drug into the search engine and be directed right to the corresponding page,” Reilly said. Or the user may click on the link of a specific pharmaceutical company.

Evelyn Hermes-DeSantis, PharmD, BCPS, and Director of the Drug Information Service at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey, said that both pharmacists and residents connected to the Drug Information Center have incorporated phactMI.org into their daily practice.  “It is the easiest place for pharmacy professionals to access the information they need,” she said. She added that she likes the ease of being able to access the system without having to register on the site, and added that users may pull up product inserts, submit drug information inquiries, or connect with the medical information departments of multiple manufacturers.

Hermes-DeSantis likes the timeliness with which questions can be answered. “There are often time lags based on where a pharma company is located that would force me to wait 3 or 4 hours to address an issue,” she said. “With phactMI.org, I can search for answers to my questions immediately and not be affected by the time difference.”

DeSantis  said the website is adaptable for use in both hospital and community pharmacies. “Every pharmacist has questions,” she said. 

Reilly told Drug Topics that the strategic plan for phactMI™ in 2018 is to add additional companies, with a goal of reaching 30. Companies are carefully vetted before they are asked to the consortium and must have established product lines with coexisting MI departments, he said. He hopes to expand the outreach of the website further, to physicians and nurse practitioners.