Micromedex includes less duplication than Lexicomp does. Micromedex's editorial team creates some items, while others are licensed from outside publishers. Micromedex 2.0 includes more than thirty items of drug information, including three books of over-the-counter and prescription drug monographs (one focused on pediatric and neonatal patients) one herbal monograph source books focusing on pregnancy and lactation, poisoning or toxicology, laboratory tests, evidence-based information on diseases, and new drugs and drugs in development the Physician's Desk Reference RED BOOK (drug pricing) patient care handouts and interactive tools including twenty clinical calculators, oral or topical drug interactions, intravenous compatibility, and pill identification. A User Guide, Training Videos, and a Quick Start Guide are easily accessible from the main search screen. It is extremely difficult to access this information in Micromedex, and reading this information is helpful for assessing reliability of items. This filtering permits a quick search to answer questions such as “What drugs cause adverse effect X?” or “In the United States, what drugs are approved to treat disease Y?” In addition to searching, the Explore feature permits browsing through books and access to introductory information such as indexes, information on editorial boards, authors, and methods and frequency of updates. Lexicomp's single search box can be filtered to search in all text in the package or in eleven specific categories (uses, adverse reactions, contraindications, warnings, etc.). It summarizes the research on this area to help novices understand the reasoning behind clinical choices. Lexicomp's Pharmacogenomics book is detailed and frequently updated. Pharmacogenomics-variation in drug response based on genetic makeup-is an emerging research area. There are extensive monographs produced by Lexicomp's editorial team for geriatric and neonatal/pediatric populations, which are not well-covered elsewhere. The Lexidrugs book includes audio pronunciation of generic drug names and links to freely available guidelines covering related topics (e.g., links are placed to the Infectious Diseases Society of America's guidelines on skin infections in the monograph for an antibiotic). Lexicomp's unique aspects support broad education on the safe use of drugs. This duplication is useful, however, as pharmacy information experts recommend that pharmacists examine several items from different publishers when responding to drug information queries. For example, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Essentials and Lexidrugs are created by separate publishers but provide similar brief drug monographs, and there are two intravenous-drug interactions tools from two publishers. Lexicomp's editorial team produces some items, while other items are licensed from other publishers, resulting in some duplication of information. Interactive tools include a pill identifier, oral and topical drug interaction tool, more than 100 clinical calculators, and 2 intravenous-drug interactions tools. Lexicomp contains over 25 items, including 6 sources of monographs on prescription and over-the-counter drugs, 2 books on international monographs, and single books focusing on herbal monographs, patient education for adult and pediatric populations, pregnancy and lactation, toxicology, drug allergies, lab and diagnostic tests, and pharmacogenomics. When considering a product, I recommend obtaining current lists of items from publishers, then using Drug Information: A Guide to Current Resources to understand the content of each item and the Basic Resources for Pharmacy Education list or similar lists for other disciplines to evaluate the relevance of each item to academic programs that the library supports. Listing names and descriptions of all items that are available in these two packages would take several pages and would soon be irrelevant as new items are frequently added. A “package” of drug information combines multiple tertiary information items such as reference books, handbooks, and interactive tools librarians select specific items to license from the options available in a package. Given my experiences, I focus on academic use and do not discuss mobile apps, although these packages can be licensed for clinical use and mobile apps including portions of the content from each package are available. This reviewer will discuss the features of Lexicomp and Micromedex 2.0, two popular packages of high-quality and reliable drug information. Comparative review of Micromedex 2.0 and Lexicomp
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