Purdue Pharma and 10 pharmaceutical companies investigated 270 drug summaries on five online drug information compendia: Medscape, Lexicomp Online, Epocrates Online, Drugs.com and RxList. Annals of Pharmacotherapy will publish the study.
Here are four observations:
1. The study found the sites include some misinformation that may harm patient safety by drug misuse.
2. The study authors found several instances of inaccuracies and outdated information in drug summaries.
3. In total, the study found a median average of 782 errors on the websites.
4. The researchers found the most errors in the “dosage and administration,” “patient education” and “warnings and precautions” categories.
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