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This article was downloaded by: [The Aga Khan University]On: 27 October 2014, At: 08:14Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK
Health Care on the InternetPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wzhi20
Mailing Lists for Pharmacistsand Other Interested HealthCare ProfessionalsLee B. Savino RPh, PharmD a b & Jeffery A. Shick RPhc da Clinical Pharmacy, Raabe College of Pharmacy ,Ohio Northern University , Ada, OH, USAb The College of Pharmacy, the PharmacyInformatics Residency Preceptor ,c Raabe College of Pharmacy , Ohio NorthernUniversity , Findlay, OH, USAd Blanchard Valley Hospital , Findlay, OH, USAPublished online: 20 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: Lee B. Savino RPh, PharmD & Jeffery A. Shick RPh (1998) MailingLists for Pharmacists and Other Interested Health Care Professionals, Health Care onthe Internet, 2:4, 45-51, DOI: 10.1300/J138v02n04_05
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J138v02n04_05
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Mailing Lists for Pharmacistsand Other Interested
Health Care Professionals
Lee B. SavinoJeffery A. Shick
ABSTRACT. Electronic mailing lists are an excellent way for phar-macists and other health care professionals to keep abreast of thenewest technologies and share information with other colleagueswith the same interests. There are now over 85,000 mailing listsavailable on a wide variety of topics. This article focuses on mailinglists that would be of interest to pharmacists and other interestedhealth care professionals. [Article copies available for a fee from TheHaworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address:[email protected]]
INTRODUCTION
Mailing lists are one of the most popular aspects of the Internetfor health care professionals. These lists provide a forum for ex-changing ideas and can support very specialized interests.1 Pharma-cists must stay abreast of innovations and advancements in pharma-ceutical technology and practice to maintain their positions on thehealth care team. With rapid advancement being made in all areas of
Lee B. Savino, RPh, PharmD ([email protected]), is Associate Professor ofClinical Pharmacy, Raabe College of Pharmacy, Ohio Northern University, Ada,OH. She is also the Webmaster at the College of Pharmacy and the PharmacyInformatics Residency Preceptor. Jeffery A. Shick, RPh ([email protected]), isResident in Pharmacy Informatics, Raabe College of Pharmacy, Ohio NorthernUniversity and Blanchard Valley Hospital, Findlay, OH.
Health Care on the Internet, Vol. 2(4) 1998E 1998 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 45
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HEALTH CARE ON THE INTERNET46
health care, it is becoming more difficult to keep up with the litera-ture and to share ideas with other pharmacists. The pharmacistshould look beyond the traditional methods of discovery and fullyutilize electronic resources. Navigating through the informationfound on the World-Wide Web is time consuming and often frus-trating. Once you have found a useful site, mailing lists make it easyto share this information with others.2 This article will focus onpharmacy related mailing lists; however, Liszt (http://www.liszt.com), the mailing list directory, contains over 85,000 listingson almost any topic.
MAILING LISTS
E-mail has advantages over other methods of communication,e.g., telephone calls, faxes, or regular mail, in that it is virtually aninstantaneous transmission, relatively inexpensive, and is not anacute interruption like the phone. It can also be read and answeredat your convenience.3An e-mail list works in much the same fashion as its paper-based
counterpart. Each person on the list receives an identical copy ofevery piece of mail sent to the list. Membership in some lists maynot be open to anyone. For example, ChildPharm is restricted; it isonly open to specific individuals. One the other hand, PharmLink isopen to anyone who is interested.4,5Some lists are moderated, meaning that a designated individual
screens and approves messages before they get distributed to sub-scribers. Moderating weeds out unwanted mail, spam, or correspon-dence that is not focused on the intended topic. Most lists, however,are unmoderated. Most lists also have archives of past messages,which may be available by e-mail or the Web. Some lists can alsoforward the messages in a digest mode, where the participant gets asingle e-mail message per day with all the day’s postings.Mailing lists can be used within an institution to deliver an-
nouncements and hold discussions for a pre-defined group, e.g.,pharmacists, nurses, technicians, etc. These are usually classified asclosed, and only the moderator can subscribe people to the list.6
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Lee B. Savino and Jeffery A. Shick 47
SUBSCRIBING
By subscribing to a mailing list, one becomes a member of thegroup. Subscription information is sent to the name of the computerthat operates the list. This is a separate e-mail address from whereyou send messages to be distributed. Three prominent mailing listapplications in use today are LISTSERV, LISTPROC, and MAJOR-DOMO. When any of these appear as part of an e-mail address, i.e.,[email protected], it indicates where subscribing and unsub-scribing messages should be sent. It should not be used for corre-spondence intended for regular subscribers.7In general, using the PHAR-PHPR pharmacy faculty list as an
example, send an e-mail to [email protected]. In thebody of the message type: subscribe phar-phpr <youremailad-dress> (don’t include the brackets). This will send a message to thecomputer that operates the list. Don’t put anything else in the mes-sage or the subject line, and disengage your automatic signature. Ifyou put a ---- on the line above your signature, the mailing listsoftware knows to ignore anything that follows, so you don’t needto disengage your signature. You will get an automatic responsetelling you if your subscription efforts were successful, and a wel-come message that tells you what the mailing list is about. Save thismessage; it also has information on how to unsubscribe. In general,to get off a mailing list, send a message to the computer housing themailing list (e.g., majordomo, etc.), with a message of: unsubscribephar-phpr <youremailaddress>. Now to send a message to everyoneelse on the list, send an e-mail to the list address, [email protected]. Specific instructions can be found in the section titledPharmacy Mailing Lists and also in the welcome letter.
PHARMACY MAILING LISTS
We have identified and evaluated several lists available that aredevoted to providing information related to pharmacy. There is aplethora of information available, and the material presented here ismeant only to serve as a beginning guide. These mailing lists can beaccessed using computer programs that support Internet e-mail. If
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HEALTH CARE ON THE INTERNET48
you don’t have access to e-mail through home or work, you canobtain a free account through Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com) orJuno (http://www.juno.com). Hotmail is Web-based e-mail, and aslong as you can get access to the Internet you can have your own,free e-mail account. Juno is a dial-in account that provides you withfree e-mail as long as you are served by one of its local phonenumbers. You do not have to have Internet access with Juno.The ANTIBIOTIC mailing list is open and unmoderated for dis-
cussion of any and all issues relating to antibiotics and infectiousdiseases (therapeutics issues, formulary issues, new drugs, etc.). Tosubscribe, address an e-mail message to [email protected] a message of subscribe antibiotic <yourfirstname yourlast-name> (do not include the brackets).BEHAV_PHARM_NEWS is not a discussion group; however,
this mailing list is a service for subscribers informing them ofdetails of forthcoming issues of the Journal of Behavioural Phar-macology. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] with a message of: subscribe behav_pharm_news<your e-mail address>.CEPOR is not a discussion group; however, this mailing list is
maintained by the Center for Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research atthe University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. CEPOR now com-municates with approximately 10,000 people. This list will allowCEPOR to reach the subscriber with news and notes of the Center.Not much activity is seen on this list, but you can subscribe bysending an e-mail to [email protected] with a messageof: subscribe CEPOR.CHILD-PHARM is a mailing list open only to professionals with
expertise in child and adolescent psychopharmacology. Most arechild psychiatrists but there are some psychologists and pediatri-cians, and others are welcome to participate. You can subscribeautomatically to the list, but must supply information about yourselfand your qualifications or you will be removed. To subscribe toChild-Pharm send an e-mail to [email protected] a message of: subscribe CHILD-PHARM.NICU-NET is a discussion group dealing with neonatal intensive
care issues for any health care professional. This is a very largemailing list with a high traffic volume. Topics for discussion in-
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Lee B. Savino and Jeffery A. Shick 49
clude, but are not limited to, recently published clinical trials orrecommendations; proposed or ongoing multi-center trials; dilem-mas in diagnosis, management and ethics; effects of health carereform on neonatology; and the role of computers in neonatal prac-tice. To subscribe, send an e-mail to [email protected] the message: subscribe nicu-net <your name>.The PEDATRIC-PRN mailing list at the University of Pittsburgh
is the Practice and Research Network for pediatric pharmacy practi-tioners, researchers, and administrators, and is provided in conjunc-tion with the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. The purposeof this mail group is to facilitate communication among pediatricpharmacy practitioners/researchers with the goal of improvingpharmacotherapy, enhancing the provision of pharmacy services,and encouraging collaborative drug therapy research to improve thecare of the pediatric patient. To subscribe, send an e-mail [email protected] with a message of: subscribe pediatric-prn.The PHARMACY MAIL EXCHANGE is a general discussion
forum for pharmacists and health care professionals. It is a serviceof the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, De Montfort Uni-versity and has been in existence for over seven years. To subscribeto this list, send an e-mail to [email protected] with a mes-sage of: subscribe pharm. You can subscribe automatically to thelist, but must supply information about yourself within seven daysor you will be removed. This list also has an associated Web site(http://www.dmu.ac.uk/ln/pme/). The Web site features an onlineform, which you can fill out to subscribe to the list, as well asreview past postings to the list.The PHARMACY MULTIMEDIA LISTSERV is for Pharmacy
Educators or students of Pharmacy interested in multimedia educa-tion and computer-assisted learning or instruction. Send e-mail [email protected] with the message: subscribePharmMM. The maintainers of this list also have a Web site(http://www.cpb.uokhsc.edu/mm/mm.html), which allows you tosubscribe to the list and view a wide variety of useful links.PHARMACY-NET is a mailing list for any pharmacist. This is a
new list and doesn’t have much activity yet. To subscribe to PHAR-MACY-NET, send e-mail to [email protected] with themessage: subscribe pharmacy_net-l <youremailaddress>.
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PHARMLINK is mailing list for pharmacists, maintained at theUniversity of Washington. Any messages relating to the practice ofpharmacy are welcome. This is a relatively new list and does nothave much traffic yet. To subscribe to PharmLink, send e-mail [email protected] with a message: subscribe pharmlink<youremailaddress>.PHARM-PHPR is a mailing list exclusively for pharmacy facul-
ty. This list allows pharmacy faculty to exchange ideas and conductresearch throughout the country. To subscribe, send e-mail [email protected], with the message: subscribephar-phpr <youremailaddress>. The list manager also has a Website (http://www.onu.edu/Pharmacy/lists), which allows you to sub-scribe to the list. It also contains policies for the list and archives ofdiscussions.PHARM-POLICY is a small list that discusses issues relating to
pharmaceutical development. Issues of particular interest includedrug pricing, ‘‘reasonable pricing’’ clause for government devel-oped drugs, and the GATT Intellectual Property provisions. Tosubscribe, send e-mail to [email protected], with the message: sub-scribe pharm-policy <yourfirstname yourlastname>.POISON-NET is a discussion group with a focus on poison con-
trol, hazardous materials management, and related areas. It is de-signed primarily for health care professionals and poison controlcenters, but is available to anyone with interest in these areas.Maintained by the University of California, Davis Regional PoisonControl Center, you can subscribe by sending e-mail to [email protected] with the message: subscribe poison-net <your name>.PSYPHARM is a mailing list for pharmacists with a practice or
interest in psychiatric pharmacy. It is a very active list with lots ofdialogue. To subscribe, send e-mail to [email protected],with the message: subscribe psypharm <yourfirstname yourlastname>.
CONCLUSION
In the age of information, the Internet has become a fast, power-ful, international information resource that has forever transformedthe way we view and use information. The need to quickly access,search, and manage information has grown into a challenging task
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as the amount of information that is available has grown exponen-tially over the past few years.8Mailing lists are a unique forum for those interested in the dis-
cussion topic and are easy to use. It is very easy to subscribe andunsubscribe as you wish, depending on your needs and schedule. Adiversely informed pharmacist should have a competitive advan-tage over others who have stagnated in this electronic revolution.Internet mailing lists are an excellent resource for information, aswell as a great opportunity for networking among colleagues inyour related field.
REFERENCES
1. Kleeberg, P. ‘‘Medical Uses of the Internet.’’ Journal of Medical Systems17 (December 1993): 363-6.
2. Marra, C.A.; Carleton, B.C.; Lynd, L.D.; Marra, F.; McDougal, A.R.;Chow, D.; McKerrow, R. ‘‘Drug and Poison Information Resources on the Inter-net, Part 2: Identification and Evaluation.’’ Pharmacotherapy 16 (September-Oc-tober 1996):806-18.
3. Duetsch, H. ‘‘The Medical Information Superhighway.’’ Journal of theFlorida Medical Association 82 (August 1995): 545-8.
4. Spooner, S.A. ‘‘The Pediatric Internet.’’ Pediatrics 98 (December 1996):1185-92.
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6. Decker, E.L. ‘‘How to Maximize the Use of E-Mail for Pharmacy.’’ Hospi-tal Pharmacist Report 10 (July 1996): 64.
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