title: Relationship Between Time Consumption and Quality of Responses to Drug-related Queries: A Study From Seven Drug Information Centers in Scandinavia.
abstract: The aims of this study were to assess the quality of responses produced by drug information centers (DICs) in Scandinavia, and to study the association between time consumption processing queries and the quality of the responses.
  
  
  
  We posed six identical drug-related queries to seven DICs in Scandinavia, and the time consumption required for processing them was estimated. Clinical pharmacologists (internal experts) and general practitioners (external experts) reviewed responses individually. We used mixed model linear regression analyses to study the associations between time consumption on one hand and the summarized quality scores and the overall impression of the responses on the other hand.
  
  
  
  Both expert groups generally assessed the quality of the responses as "satisfactory" to "good." A few responses were criticized for being poorly synthesized and less relevant, of which none were quality-assured using co-signatures. For external experts, an increase in time consumption was statistically significantly associated with a decrease in common quality score (change in score, -0.20 per hour of work; 95% CI, -0.33 to -0.06; P = 0.004), and overall impression (change in score, -0.05 per hour of work; 95% CI, -0.08 to -0.01; P = 0.005). No such associations were found for the internal experts' assessment.
  
  
  
  To our knowledge, this is the first study of the association between time consumption and quality of responses to drug-related queries in DICs. The quality of responses were in general good, but time consumption and quality were only weakly associated in this setting.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, Nord University, Steinkjer, Norway; Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Center (Midt-Norge), St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim, Norway. Electronic address: linda.a.reppe@nord.no.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Amundstuen Reppe
authors.affiliation: Regional Center for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare-Central Norway, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Stian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lydersen
authors.affiliation: Section of Clinical Pharmacology, Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway; Department of Clinical Science, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Center (Vest), Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schjøtt
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Chemistry & Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Damkier
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Hanne
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Rolighed Christensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peter Kampmann
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Drug Research, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ylva
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Böttiger
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children's and Women's Health, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Regional Medicines Information and Pharmacovigilance Center (Midt-Norge), St. Olavs Hospital, Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Spigset
mesh_terms: D004346:Drug Information Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007253:Information Centers / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: drug information services; health care”; physicians; time factors; “quality assurance