[Hospital Pharmacy Departments on the internet. An unfinished business?]. / Servicios de Farmacia hospitalaria en internet. Una asignatura pendiente?

OBJECTIVE: To establish the percentage of Pharmacy Departments with a web site on the Net, and to analyze whether their contents are focused on the development of pharmaceutical care activities for outpatients. METHODS: Cross-sectional study based on multiple Internet searches using the Copernic version 6.0 software, as well as on directories listing hospital- and pharmacy department-owned web sites. RESULTS: Amongst 452 hospitals with 100 or more beds, 198 (43.8%) hospital web pages and 52 (11.52%) pharmacy department web sites were found. The contents of pharmacy department sites were usually deficient, and only rarely was interaction with outpatients envisaged. CONCLUSION: The presence of pharmacy departments on the Internet is scarce. Telepharmacy or pharmaceutical care for outpatients using novel information technologies remains underdeveloped by Spanish pharmacy departments.

[Proportion of reports published after their presentation in meetings of Farmacia Hospitalaria]. / Proporción de comunicaciones publicadas tras su presentación en congresos de Farmacia Hospitalaria.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of our study is to establish the publishing percentage of reports accepted in congresses of Sociedad Española de Farmacia Hospitalaria held during the years 1996-98. METHODS: Any paper in a journal indexed within Indice Médico Español. RESULTS: From a total of 638 reports, 35 corresponding to the 1998 congress (15.6%), 27 to the 1997 congress (13.4%) and 30 to the 1996 congress (15.6%) were later published. Only 3.4% of the aforementioned 638 reports were published in journals indexed in Index Medicus. CONCLUSIONS: Percentages found were noticeably lower than those of other medical groups (41%), but higher than those found for the American Society of Health Pharmacists Congress, held in 1994 (11%). Published reports only rarely show up in journals indexed in Index Medicus. Such scarce widespreading of studies takes relevant information away from both the scientific and clinical communities, and introduces publication biases for systematic reviews. The recent inclusion of our journal "Farmacia Hospitalaria" in Medline will notably increase paper spreading.