In the wake of rampant incidents of adverse drug reactions (ADR) in 38 women at BMC run Bhabha Hospital, Kurla and at Rajawadi Hospital in Vidyavihar East after being administered a variant combination of two Schedule H1 antibacterial antibiotics - ceftriaxone and cefotaxime recently, pharma experts advocate that the concept of Drug Information Centres (DICs) need to be embraced by healthcare institutions to address the menace.

Out of the 38 women who suffered drug reaction, a 47-year-old woman died a week ago, after 24 hours of suffering an ADR due to the administration of antibiotic injections at BMC run Bhabha Hospital.  

DICs according to experts will not only dispel a lot of misconceptions with regards to medical prescription but help address issues pertaining adverse drug reactions, drug usage, dosage and time schedule for patient safety.

Experts rue that the concept is old but not very popular in India because of low awareness levels. In developed countries, pharmacists running medical shops are supposed to provide drug information through DICs. Informs Dr Atmaram Pawar, dean, pharmaceutical sciences, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Pune, “DICs are important because drug information helps minimise death due to adverse effect of drugs. This is more relevant because India practically lacks a system to identify the reason of deaths due to drug side effects.”

First DIC in India started at JJ Hospital and KEM Hospital, Mumbai in 1968. There were around 21 DICs till 2008. Only government hospitals like All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru and few state pharmacy councils were equipped with DICs a few years back.

"After launching of Pharm D courses in India during 2008-09, each college in India started gearing up towards setting up DIC and the number of DICs in the country gradually reached the figure of around 100 or so. But very few of them are working effectively today. Reason being that they are inclined more towards academic information and not into delivering clinically relevant information and details," he informs.

Taking cue from the developed countries where running a DIC is the main job of a pharmacist, DICs should ideally be promoted in the country, Dr Pawar advocates.