Today’s mobile devices allow end users to get information related to a particular domain based on their current location, such as the fastest route to the nearest drugstore. However, in such Location-Based Services (LBS), richer and more targeted information is desirable. In many applications, end users would like to be notified about relevant events or places to visit in the near future accord...

Today’s mobile devices allow end users to get information related to particular domain based on their current location, such as the fastest route to the nearest drugstore. However, in such Location-Based Services (LBS), richer and more targeted information is desirable. In many applications, end users would like to be notified about relevant events or places to visit in the near future accordin...

A multi-national working group on antibiotic stewardship, from the International Society of Chemotherapy, put together ten recommendations to physicians prescribing antibiotics to outpatients. These recommendations are: (1) use antibiotics only when needed; teach the patient how to manage symptoms of non-bacterial infections; (2) select the adequate ATB; precise targeting is better than shotgun...

Representations related to self-medication were investigated, seeking to identify contextual elements that can reinforce or inhibit such practice. An anthropological approach based on the model of signs, meanings, and actions was used. Twenty-nine inhabitants from the town of Bambuí, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, were interviewed (17 women and 12 men), selected among participants in a health surv...

The return on investments in electronic procurement platforms has been elusive. We show that the use of an electronic platform for the procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical devices has saved the Government of Chile money. Using a unique data set that covers purchases of the same items before and after the new Chilecompra platform was introduced in 2004 and includes controls for other varia...

The aim of this study is to compare two different productions of Albanian and Canadian B-complex multivitamin tablets on the Albanian pharmaceutical market through various ‘in vitro’ pharmacopeias tests and argue about the regulatory legislative framework of drugstore sale of these products. Identification, weight uniformity, hardness and disintegration tests are carried out for the specific vi...

BACKGROUND The FDA approved over-the-counter (OTC) use of vaginal antifungals in 1990. Subsequently, a plethora of OTC products have become available to women on drugstore shelves. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the availability of OTC products marketed for the treatment of vaginitis and to determine if their efficacy had been confirmed by published prospective randomiz...