Fox G N
Family Health Care Center, Reading Hospital and Medical Center, PA 19612-6052.
J Fam Pract. 1991 Sep;33(3):273-80.
The value of a computer application is usually dependent on the program's ability to store, rearrange, and retrieve information in a format that is useful to the computer user. Based on a list of drugs (input), drug interactions programs search their databases for possible interactions between each drug pair in the input list. An output list specifies pairs of drugs that potentially interact. Since each program uses its own information database, results may differ slightly among programs. In general, however, the screen menus, appearance of the programs, and the "extras" included in each program differ more than the programs' drug interactions output. The software programs tested are all easy to use. Each of the three drug interactions programs reviewed has unique features that may appeal to certain users. The Medical Letter Drug Interactions Program is the least costly and provides the most academic output, allowing users to view citations for each specific interaction. The PDR Drug Interactions and Side Effects software includes a side effects index that allows either searching of a drug, which produces a list of the drug's side effects, or searching of a specific side effect, which produces a list of drugs associated with that side effect. Drug Interactions III is the only program that allows users to add drug interactions to its database.
计算机应用程序的价值通常取决于该程序以对计算机用户有用的格式存储、重新排列和检索信息的能力。基于一份药物列表（输入），药物相互作用程序会在其数据库中搜索输入列表中每对药物之间可能存在的相互作用。输出列表会指明可能存在相互作用的药物对。由于每个程序都使用其自己的信息数据库，不同程序的结果可能会略有差异。然而，总体而言，各程序的屏幕菜单、外观以及每个程序中包含的“附加功能”的差异，要大于程序的药物相互作用输出结果的差异。所测试的软件程序都易于使用。所审查的三个药物相互作用程序各有独特功能，可能会吸引某些用户。《医学通讯》药物相互作用程序成本最低，提供的学术输出最多，允许用户查看每种特定相互作用的参考文献。《医师案头参考》药物相互作用与副作用软件包含一个副作用索引，既可以搜索一种药物，生成该药物的副作用列表，也可以搜索一种特定的副作用，生成与之相关的药物列表。《药物相互作用III》是唯一允许用户将药物相互作用添加到其数据库中的程序。
