Table 1.

ACCP DI PRN recommendations for drug information practice.¹

Practice area	Recommendations
Academia	Drug information specialists in academic DICs should have extensive postgraduate training (i.e., pharmacy practice residency plus a drug information specialty residency or equivalent drug information practice experience). Training of drug information skills to pharmacy students, residents, and practitioners should remain a focal point for academic drug information specialists. Academic DICs should explore alternative means of financial support, such as fee-for-service activities.
Health systems	Drug information specialists should continue to be intimately involved in therapeutic policy management and consult on challenging drug information inquiries. Specialists should be engaged in the following activities: medication safety initiatives, purchasing of drug information resources, and drug shortage management. Drug information specialists should also evaluate patient outcomes with regard to drug-related policies and potentially become involved in investigational drug services. Other areas of potential involvement include training employees regarding the availability and use of drug information resources; developing drug alerts for software programs, such as CPOE; and handling difficult reimbursement issues.
Managed care	Organizations that provide traditional drug information services to employees or members should employ a drug information specialist. Drug information specialists that participate in activities such as formulary management, medication use evaluation, and adverse event monitoring in this setting should have postgraduate training in drug information or managed care. If no “in-house” drug information or managed care specialist exists, every effort should be made to include at least one such individual in drug information–related activities.
Industry	Individuals who answer drug information requests in this setting should have at least 1 year of specialized drug information residency training. Drug information specialists within the medical communications department in industry settings should collaborate with individuals within other areas to ensure that all product materials and programs are medically accurate.
Medical writing	Drug information specialists should only be medical writers if appropriately medically trained. Specialists should be considered to complete or assist in medical writing tasks.
Informatics	Drug information specialists should collaborate with informaticists to develop useful health care applications.

Note. ACCP = American College of Clinical Pharmacy; CPOE = computerized physician order entry; DI PRN = Drug Information Practice and Research Network; DIC = drug information center.