The Drug Information Research Center

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The Drug Information Research Center (DIRC) was established in Romania in 2004 at the "Iuliu Hatieganu" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca as a regional drug information service for healthcare professionals. The service includes answering the physicians and pharmacists queries, review of the literature and information retrieval and dissemination, tracking and evaluating adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and interactions in clinical practice through the means of an online voluntary reporting tool for healthcare professionals and for consumers. Part of the activities related to drug information, the center publishes 4 times per year a Pharmacovigilance Bulletin and every second week flash news regarding drug therapy (all these being available online on the center's webpage www.cim.umfcluj.ro).

DIRC main research activities are in the field of pharmacovigilance: detection, evaluation and characterization of ADRs, drug-drug interactions and other drug-related problems in outpatients and inpatients. We maintain databases with the identified and evaluated cases.

The center is involved in educational activities and developed several educational programs in the context of specific public health related problems: avian flu, swine flu, Human Papiloma Virus and uterine cancer, educational programs regarding the importance of pharmacovigilance and of voluntary adverse drug reactions reporting.

The center is staffed by two research pharmacists. Academic staff and pharmacy students are regularly involved in several of the center's activities on a voluntary basis.