Caveat emptor: Erroneous safety information about opioids in online drug-information compendia.

Background: Healthcare professionals and consumers refer to online drug-information compendia (eg, Epocrates and WebMD) to learn about prescription medications, including opioid analgesics. With the significant risks associated with opioids, including abuse, misuse, and addiction, any of which can result in life-threatening overdose, it is important for those seeking information from online compendia to have access to current, accurate, and complete drug information to help support clinical treatment decisions. Although compendia are informative, readily available, and user friendly, studies have shown that they may contain errors.

Implementing a Process to Review Product-Specific Misinformation in Online Drug Information Compendia.

Health care professionals and consumers often use online drug information compendia, which are intended to be user-friendly, readily available, accurate, and up-to-date. While these resources can be valuable, it has been shown that some compendia contain inaccuracies and outdated information, motivating the Medical Services (medical information) Department at Purdue Pharma LP to implement a periodic, standardized review of select online drug information compendia. Monographs within compendia for up to 9 Purdue products were reviewed and compared to their current Full Prescribing Information, with a focus on identifying safety-related misinformation.