Participants believed that physicians would be better suited as MTM providers than pharmacists. Concerns identified were the mechanism of pharmacist payment, reimbursement of time spent by physicians to coordinate care, and the training/preparation of the pharmacist. The need for a trusting relationship between a patient’s primary care physician and the pharmacists providing MTM was identified.

Conclusion: This study provides information to assist pharmacists when approaching physicians to propose collaboration through MTM. Pharmacists should tell physicians that they will receive an updated

patient medication list after each visit and emphasize that direct communication is essential to coordinate care.”
“Objective: Patients commonly refer to Internet health-related information. To date, no quantitative comparison of the accuracy and readability of common diagnoses in Pediatric Otolaryngology exist. Study aims: (1) identify the three most frequently referenced this website Internet sources; (2) compare the content accuracy and (3) ascertain user-friendliness of each site; (4) inform practitioners and patients of the quality of available information.

Methods:

Twenty-four diagnoses in pediatric otolaryngology were entered in Google and the top five URLs for PRIMA-1MET each were ranked. Articles were accessed for each topic in the three most frequently referenced sites. Standard rubrics were developed to include proprietary scores for content, errors, navigability, and validated metrics of readability.

Results: Wikipedia, eMedicine, and NLM/NIH MedlinePlus were the most referenced sources. For content accuracy, eMedicine scored highest (84%; p < 0.05) over MedlinePlus (49%) and Wikipedia (46%). The highest incidence of errors and omissions per article was found in Wikipedia (0.98 +/- 0.19), twice more than eMedicine (0.42 +/- 0.19; p < 0.05). Errors were similar between MedlinePlus and both eMedicine and Wikipedia. On ratings for user interface, which incorporated Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Level and Flesch Reading Ease, MedlinePlus was the most user-friendly (4.3 signaling pathway +/- 0.29). This was nearly twice that of eMedicine (2.4 +/- 0.26)

and slightly greater than Wikipedia (3.7 +/- 0.3). All differences were significant (p < 0,05), There were 7 topics for which articles were not available on MedlinePlus.

Conclusions: Knowledge of the quality of available information on the Internet improves pediatric otolaryngologists’ ability to counsel parents. The top web search results for pediatric otolaryngology diagnoses are Wikipedia, MedlinePlus, and eMedicine. Online information varies in quality, with a 46-84% concordance with current textbooks. eMedicine has the most accurate, comprehensive content and fewest errors, but is more challenging to read and navigate. Both Wikipedia and MedlinePlus have lower content accuracy and more errors, however MedlinePlus is simplest of all to read, at a 9th Grade level.