Drug info service launched in Moncton

From the Moncton (NB) Times and Transcript:
A Moncton company has come up with a service it believes will greatly assist Canadian health care professionals and ultimately the people they serve with its 24-hour access to product information from Canadian pharmaceutical companies.

The free, web-enabled mobile and personal computer service being developed by PPS Pharma will mean quick access at any time to reliable, up-to-date information on drugs and services offered by pharmaceutical companies that join the service.

The service will help physicians, pharmacists, nurses and industry stakeholders use their cell phones and personal computers to stay up to date on "Canadian" drugs and medical devices, explained company president Tony Hebert. The same system will allow the pharmaceutical companies to update their information, announce new products or send out alerts.

The service will also contain contact numbers and sales policies for the more than 50 companies that are customers of the printed PPS Buyers Guide and Pharmacy Lighthouse Newsletter.

PPS Mobile will be made available to industry stakeholders in early June and the site publicly launched by the fall. ...more

Doctors rely too heavily on drug company data: CMA

From CBC News:
Most of the information doctors receive about prescription drugs comes from the companies making the product, a doctor said Wednesday, pointing to a possible reason doctors continue to prescribe dangerous drugs to seniors.

Dr. John Haggie, a Canadian Medical Association board member who chairs its ad hoc working group on pharmaceutical issues, said government warnings often get lost in the stack of documents physicians routinely receive.

"The average physician is bombarded with written and faxed material in the course of a week.… [Government warnings] tend to get buried sometimes in the noise," Haggie said in an interview with CBC News from Gander, N.L., on Wednesday. ...more