Department of Pharmacology

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Sri Lanka Prescriber Readers Survey
International Society of Drug Bulletins (ISDB)
General Assembly - Nicaragua 1st -4th Dec 2008
Dr Priyadarshani Galappatthy Honorary Editorial
Secretary Sri Lanka Prescriber

• Department of Pharmacology
• Faculty of medicine
• University of Colombo.

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Sri Lanka Prescriber

• Continuous publication from 1993
• Member of ISDB from 2001
• Published jointly by Department of Pharmacology
  Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo and
  State Pharmaceuticals Coorporation of Sri Lanka
• Quarterly publication
• Distributed free of charge to all doctors
  employed by MOH and Universities
• Current readership - 5500

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Readers Survey -2007

• Done after 14 years of continuous publication
• Inspiration from the readers surveys of
• Essential Drugs Monitor of WHO (In the 20th year)
• Outlook Readers survey
• Questions were designed as suited for The Sri
  Lanka Prescriber
• A reward of a BNF was offered to the winner of
  responders in a draw to increase the response
  rate !

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Respondents
Number of questionnaires sent 3500 Number of
respondents 842 ( 25)
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Respondents primary field of practice
6
Usefulness of Reading Sri Lanka Prescriber
(marking any number of responses allowed)
7
Usefulness of Reading Sri Lanka Prescriber
(marking any number of responses allowed)
8
Satisfaction on identified areas ( Mean score on
a scale of 0-5)
9
Adequacy of areas covered Mean scores in a
scale of 0-5
10
Any other areas prefered to be covered in Sri
Lanka Prescriber
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The areas suggested

• Surgery
• Obstetrics/Gynaecology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• ENT, Eye
• Dermatology, Neurology
• Anesthesia
• Human genetics, Forensic Medicine, Radiology,
• Therapeutic hints
• Family Medicine and Community Medicine
• New drugs and related topics
• Management of medical emergencies
• Vaccines
• Management of common diseases
• Information about new researches and results
• Information about improvements of medicines

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Satisfaction regarding the following sections of
Sri Lanka Prescriber (Mean scores from 1-5)
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The proportion of the Sri Lanka Prescriber read
by readers
14
Number of people reading the copy
15
Is the information in the Sri Lanka Prescriber
easily available elsewhere?

• If yes specify the source
• Australian Prescriber

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How can we improve the Sri Lanka Prescriber?

• Content
• Increase number of pages
• Increase number of issues per year
• More information in brief
• Give useful information on newly researched drugs
• Increase MCQ questions in all subjects
• Increase number of topics published

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How can we improve the Sri Lanka Prescriber -Ctd

• Design
• Including more pages
• Reducing the size of the Journal
• Including colour photographs, charts ,diagrams
• Use a hard cover
• Any other comments
• Send to all college libraries and hospital
  libraries
• This is the only source of CPD resource we
  recieve
• Increase the price !
• Good work !

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What have we done to improve the journal since
the readers survey

• Increased the number of pages ( additional cost
  of Rs 80,000/ (USD 800) per year for the sponsor
  SPC
• Increase the length of articles to 1500 /- 200
  words more information on the topic allowed
• Increase the articles in areas requested eg.
  Surgery, vaccines
• Given the prize to the winner !

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What more do we hope to do ?

• Publish the results of survey in the Sri Lanka
  Prescriber and actions taken for improvement
• Request each editorial Board member to identify
  topics of their speciality and authors to get
  articles for publication
• Get the journal published on time
• Upload to the website on time

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Problems in implementation

• Dearth of suitable articles to be published
• Delays in publications
• All members of Editorial Board working on an
  honorary basis
• Limitations of the time spent for the journal due
  to other commitments of Editorial Board members

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THANK YOU!