[News release] How to get smarter on pills for seniors

From the 23 March 2015 MedicalExpress post

Various pills (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Open the medicine cabinet of a senior and you’re likely to find scores of pill bottles. Physicians are often unaware of all the medications a patient is taking, which can result in unnecessary additional prescriptions, non-prescription medications and potential drug-drug interactions that cause unexpected adverse effects. When a cancer diagnosis is thrown into the mix, the drug-drug interactions can become even more complex. A new study evaluates the currently available screening tools for determining if and when seniors with cancer are taking too many medications and finds that a more comprehensive medication assessment and monitoring plan is needed to improve treatment for this population.

Look up medications more quickly and easily on Google

From the Google Announcement

11/30/12 | 9:00:00 AM

Labels: knowledge graph

We get a lot of queries for medicine on Google. So to make it quick and easy for you to learn about medications, we’ll start showing key facts — side effects, related medications, links to in-depth resources, and more — right on the search results page.

This data comes from the U.S. FDA, the National Library of Medicine, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, among others. It’s part of the Knowledge Graph — our project to map out billions of real-world things, from famous artists to roller coasters to planets (and now medications). We hope you find this useful, but remember that these results do not act as medical advice.

Posted by Aaron Brown, Senior Product Manager, Search

 

Related Resources (because there are other reputable resources besides the one’s Google mines! with additional drug info)

 

 

 

Drugs, Supplements, and Herbal Information 

Learn about your prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Includes side effects, dosage, special precautions, and more.

Browse dietary supplements and herbal remedies to learn about their effectiveness, usual dosage, and drug interactions.

 

 

 

Dietary Supplements Labels Database 

Information about label ingredients in more than 6,000 selected brands of dietary supplements. It enables users to compare label ingredients in different brands. Information is also provided on the “structure/function” claims made by manufacturers.

These claims by manufacturers have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Companies may not market as dietary supplements any products that are intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

 

 

Drug Information Portal

A gateway to selected drug information from the US government.  It links you to information on over 12,000 drugs from trusted consumer drug information sources (as MedlinePlus Drug Information), the US Food and Drug Information (as Drugs @FDA), LactMed(summary of effects on breastfeeding), and more.

 

 

PIllbox (Beta)

Pillbox enables rapid identification of unknown solid-dosage medications (tablets/capsules) based on physical characteristics and high-resolution images.
Once a medication is identified, Pillbox provides links to drug information and drug labels.

 

 

Medwatch

Clinically important safety information and reporting serious problems with human medical products.

Safety information includes drug information, recalls & alerts, drug shortage information, and medication guides.

Anyone can report  serious medical product problems and/or unlawful sale of medical products on the internet

 

Together we

MedEffect Canada

Adverse Reaction Online Database contains information about suspected adverse reactions (also known as side effects) to health products, recalls, advisories, and warnings from the Canadian government

 

 

More Drug Resources at Drug Information Resources 

      (by the Consumer and Patient Health Information Section of the Medical Library Association)

 

Including…..

• CenterWatch/Clinical Trials Listing Service
  This useful resource lists newly approved drugs, drugs in current clinical research, weekly trial results, as well as a link to the PDR Family Medical Guide for Prescription Drugs.
• Longwood Herbal Task Force
  This site has in-depth monographs about herbal products and supplements written by health professionals and students. It provides clinical information summaries, patient fact sheets, and information about toxicity and interactions as well as relevant links. The task force is a cooperative effort of the staff and students from Children’s Hospital, the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
• FDA Recalls  provides information gathered from press releases and other public notices about certain recalls of FDA-regulated products
• Epocrates

 

Related articles

• Herbal and Dietary Supplements Can Adversely Affect Prescribed Drugs, Says Extensive Review (jflahiff.wordpress.com)
• Natural Does Not Mean Safe (slate.com)
• Warning out on supplements (newsinfo.inquirer.net)
• Drug industry’s free speech helps doctors (cnn.com)
• Supplements not on an FDA approved list could disappear (prn.fm)
• Look up medications more quickly and easily on Google (insidesearch.blogspot.com)
• Google Adds Key Facts About Medicines To Its Knowledge Graph Results (techcrunch.com)
• Google: This is your Knowledge Graph on drugs (news.cnet.com)