A peer review quality assurance program in drug information.

The development and implementation of a peer review quality assurance program for a drug information service is described. Eight drug information centres across Canada initially agreed to participate as peer reviewers. Critera were developed to select drug information requests that would qualify for the program. Peer review responses were compared to the centre's response by a panel of four drug information pharmacists. Thirteen of 14 requests sent to peer reviewers were returned and there was agreement between the conclusions and recommendations provided in the responses by our drug information centre and the peer review pharmacist in 11 cases. Peer reviewer pharmacists tended to prepare more in depth responses. This represents the first report of a peer review quality assurance program for a drug information service.