Practical tool to assess reliability of web-based medicines information.
OBJECTIVE
Information disseminated by medicines information systems is not always easy to apply. Nowadays internet provides access to enormous volume and range of health information that was previously inaccessible both for medical specialists and consumers. The aim of this study is to assess internet as a source of drug and health related information and to create test methodology to evaluate the top 10 visited health-related web-sites in Bulgaria.


METHODS
Using existing scientific methodologies for evaluation of web sources, a new algorithm of three-step approach consisting of score-card validation of the drug-related information in the 10 most visited Bulgarian web-sites was created.


RESULTS
In many cases the drug information in the internet sites contained errors and discrepancies. Some of the published materials were not validated; they were out-of-date and could cause confusion for consumers.


CONCLUSIONS
The quality of the online health information is a cause for considerable information noise and threat to patients' safety and rational drug use. There is a need of monitoring the drugs information available online in order to prevent patient misinformation and confusion that could lead to medication errors and abuse.
Faculty of Pharmacy, Medical University-Sofia, Bulgaria.
Hristina
H
Lebanova
Ilko
I
Getov
Evgeni
E
Grigorov
D000465:Algorithms; D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000592:standards*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires