Telematics applications to support the role of the community pharmacists as self-medication advisors. TESEMED Consortium.
One of the applications developed within the EU-funded projects TESEMED and TESEMED-II is a program for the information and continuous training of community pharmacists, with the aim to empower them as advisors of the citizens about self-medication topics. Several programs are being developed on the basis of ad-hoc developed protocols about minor ailments (currently, cold and flu, haemorrhoids, constipation and cough). Each program includes three modules: a hypertextual version of the protocol, an interactive scheme of it, and an educational tool called Encounter Simulator, that trains the pharmacist about the protocol by means of simulated pharmacist-customer interactions. The testing of these applications with 84 community pharmacists offers positive results in terms of expectations, program characteristics and perceived usefulness.
Sanz
F
F
R.G. on Medical Informatics, IMIM/UPF, Barcelona, Spain.
Silveira
C
C
Alonso
A
A
Diaz
C
C
Loza
M I
MI
Cordero
L
L
Fernandez-Llimós
F
F
Tiddens
L
L
Giorgio
F
F
Cranz
H
H
Mircheva
J
J
D003139:Common Cold / Q000188:drug therapy; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004346:Drug Information Services; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000188:drug therapy; D008491:Medical Informatics Applications; D010595:Pharmacists; D012651:Self Medication; D012984:Software