Usage of the internet pharmacology resources among European pharmacologists: a preliminary investigation

The Internet is becoming an ever more important source of information in ph armacology and medicine, Little is known, however, about which Internet pha rmacology resources are actually used by the pharmacologists - and to what extent - and how they estimate the Internet information quality and evaluat ion This pilot study used an anonymous questionnaire, distributed among 250 mostly European (220/250) pharmacologists from 30 European countries atten ding The 2nd European Congress of Pharmacology, held in Budapest, Hungary, in 1999. According to study results, 93% of all participants use the Intern et pharmacology resources: 56%, 35% and 9% of them on a daily, weekly and m onthly basis, respectively. Among 55 pharmacological/medical free online da tabases offered, the general scientific databases were found to greatly pre vail (Pub Med 60%, Evaluated MEDLINE 37%, Internet Grateful Med 29%, etc.), while drug monographs or toxicological databases were less used [e.g. ECDI N, RxList, National Toxicology Programme (NTP) < 10%]. Some 80% of the part icipants estimated the quality of the pharmacological information on the In ternet as good or very good, while 20% thought the quality should be improv ed. Also, 35% of participants felt the need for improvement of the Internet pharmacological information evaluation, which should be the goal of pharma cology professional.