Access information database via NPA website
Twenty-four hour access to the National Pharmacy Association's information department database is one of the key features of its new website, which was officially launched last week.
Members of the NPA will now be able to access IRIS (information retrieval
and input system) — a database that holds information on over 55,000
pharmacy-related products and over 45,000 bibliographic-style references — via
the password-protected area of the website at www.npa.co.uk. The member’s
area also features malaria and vaccination recommendations for travellers,
information on new and discontinued products and a “hot topics” section,
which logs the most popular information queries.
The database is updated daily and includes information from a wide variety
of pharmacy, nursing and medical journals, manufacturers, government
publications and the media.
The new website also allows members to create their own five-page microsite
(which has its own URL) within the NPA site. If members then register
with the “Ask your pharmacist” service, consumers accessing
the public part of the website will be able to locate details of their
pharmacy. There are plans to extend this section so that consumers are
able to locate specific services as well as
pharmacies.
The new website is part of the NPA’s strategy to improve communication
with its members and to keep the organisation relevant to its members,
something that started with its new
name and logo last year (PJ, 9 July
2005, p35).
The NPA also hopes that the site will help its members to understand
that the internet is part of pharmacy’s business and that it will
become even more business critical in the
future. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader