Medicines information enquiries received by the NHS Direct Online enquiry service: what do patients want to know?

摘要

The internet provides a relatively new avenue for medicines information. Although guidance regarding internet-based medicines infoimation is provided for the pharmaceutical industry,there is no quality control for other internet-based health information. NHS Direct Online (NHSDOL) was set up in 1999 in order to provide independent internet-based information. The aim of this paper was to characterise medicines-related queries sent to NHSDOL and identify common or recurring themes.