title: [Assessment of pharmaceutical databases available in France].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the relevance of several pharmaceutical databases (PDBs) to be integrated in a computerized prescription system for hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty medical prescriptions were designed as tests. They were supposed to answer to a security or a relevance assessment item. They were analyzed using four French PDBs (Claude-Bernard, Thériaque, Thésorimed, Vidal), available online. The outcome was the rate of conformity with the expected answers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The rate of conformity was: 31% for Claude-Bernard, 30% for Thériaque, 26% for Vidal, and 20% for Thésorimed (no statistical significance).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PDBs easily detect interactions between different pharmacological class drugs but redundancies and illogical situations are poorly intercepted. They seem to manage medicines only by the active ingredient, irrespective of the dose or the indication. The knowledge of the patient profile and the context are not really enriched by the content of the prescription.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The efficacy of these PDB has to be improved.
authors.affiliation: Service de pharmacie, centre chirurgical Marie-Lannelongue, 133, avenue de la Résistance, 92350 Le Plessis-Robinson, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hacin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mainar
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Édouard
mesh_terms: D019090:Case Management; D062313:Databases, Pharmaceutical / Q000592:standards*; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004358:Drug Therapy; D005602:France; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D006801:Humans; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital