Filing Scheme

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Quick Reference
• Therapeutics
• Community Pharmacy Topics
• Hospital/Institutional Pharmacy Topics
• Miscellaneous/Not Classified Elsewhere
• Condensed Table of Contents (For Easy Printing)
• Acknowledgements

Pharmacy/Drug Information: Where Do You File It?

*An undergraduate pharmacy student when this filing scheme was first published on the Internet (1997), Sean currently is studying for his Pharm D degree at the University of British Columbia.

   As a follow-up to Drug Information Resources: A Guide For Pharmacists, we are suggesting a scheme to help pharmacists organize all the ephemeral information they have collected/accumulated in the pursuit of providing drug information to consumers and fellow health professionals. In addition, we envisioned a scheme which pharmacists can download from the College website on the Internet and adapt for their own use. After your texts and journal subscriptions have been arranged in a useful manner, you may still be left with several stacks of reprints, handouts, notes from CE presentations, photocopied journal articles, press releases, newspaper clippings, articles torn from "throw-away" publications, new product information, material downloaded from the Internet --- the list goes on and on.

To help you deal with this mass of ephemeral but potentially useful information, we have developed a hierarchical scheme, hopefully covering most facets of pharmacy knowledge --- with the goal of categorizing and organizing the many topics in which pharmacists have an interest. Setting up a hierarchical scheme allowed us to keep related topics close together; this makes browsing much easier; more productive.

We decided on five major sections, then each, with the exception of therapeutics, was assigned an alphabetical code:

Each section was then divided into a number of major categories. Each category in the therapeutics section was assigned a distinct alphabetical code. Alpha-numeric codes assigned to topics within each of the five major sections, indicate their relationship to one another. Instead of numbering consecutively, each fifth number was chosen, therefore allowing for future expansion between numbers as new filing topics are identified. (See example below.) To allow further subdivision of the categories, decimal points were used. To recap : Expanding the system is based on inserting previously unused numbers and also by adding decimal points, e.g.:

QR : QUICK REFERENCE (Section)
QR60   Drug Interactions (Category)
QR60.05      Drug-Drug Interactions (Subcategory)
QR60.05.05  Drug Interactions with Oral Contraceptives (Sub-subcategory)
QR60.10      Drug-Food Interactions
QR60.10.05  Drug-Grapefruit Juice Interactions
QR60.15      Drug-Herbal Medicine Interactions
QR60.20      Drug-Lab Test Interactions

Following are several suggestions for setting up a smaller system. To start off, use only the major sections and some or all of the categories, as listed in our Condensed Filing Scheme. But, add more categories, or subcategorize when the original files become too full and you can no longer find information quickly. A number of subjects are very similar or identical in community pharmacy topics and hospital pharmacy topics. If you work in one area and not the other, set up only one of the two, knowing that the other is available if the need arises. Finally, if you are anticipating a relatively small filing system, you might forget hierarchies and simply arrange your files alphabetically by subject.

Our first draft of the filing scheme contained two separate sections for diseases/disorders and drugs/management. Several of our reviewers suggested instead having one section for therapeutics with the two original sections merged. They commented that most pharmacists, unless highly specialized, probably would not be collecting/saving articles on congestive heart failure, e.g., unless the article contained at least some information on management. In the merged therapeutics categories disorders/management are listed first, followed by drug-induced disorders. The last elements within each category of the therapeutics section are individual drugs or drug classes in the cases where these drugs have more than one use in the same category, or across therapeutics categories.

You may be wondering where we found the topics. We knew that making the therapeutics section comprehensive would be the greatest challenge so we pored over current edtions of a number of standard texts (1-9). We also consulted the medical subject headings (MeSH) and tree structures developed by the National Library of Medicine and spent quite a bit of time checking definitions in Dorland's (10-12). For the community and hospital pharmacy topics we also checked specialized sources (13-15). We scanned recent issues of two Canadian pharmacy newspapers, Pharmacist News and Pharmacy Post. A number of topics were developed, especially in the miscellaneous section, as a result of many years of scanning pharmacy publications. And, we didn't start from scratch. A less complex pharmacy filing scheme had been published by Foy, Grant, Giddens and Hingston in 1984 (16).

Since that time reference manager software systems have come into wide use. You can utilize these to set-up your own searchable database containing citations to materials you have collected and/or citations you have downloaded from other databases. The ones we have heard of all have websites which you may wish to access to obtain further information:

Bookends Plus®
EndNote Plus®
Papyrus®
Pro-cite®
Reference Manager®

Finally, the following suggestions for maintaining a useful pharmacy filing system made by Foy et al. in 1984, (and by many others before and since) are based on practical experience and are still true today:

• Identify the source of the item you are filing if this information is not readily apparent, i.e. journal title, date of publication, volume number, issue number and paging.
• List file name and/or alphanumeric code designation on the front of each item. This will enable accurate filing/refiling by yourself or others..
• Place a notation on the front of an item if it merits special attention, e.g. "good review," "useful table," etc.
• If you loan articles, stamp or write your name on the front page of each item.
• If you loan articles or files, consider setting up a sign-out sheet/notebook.
• Attach very small pieces of paper to 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper to prevent loss.
• Write citations and notations about memorable articles found in intact journals on 8.5" x 11" sheets of paper and place in the appropriate file or make use of reference manager software.
• When individual files become too full, subdivide them.
• Review files periodically and remove obsolete articles or information that can be found in current editions of standard texts.
• Keep a copy of the filing scheme in a prominent place, e.g., it is the number one item in our filing scheme.

REFERENCES:

1. AHFS DI. McEvoy GK, ed. Bethesda MD: American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 1997.
2. Applied Therapeutics: The Clinical Use of Drugs. 6th ed. Koda-Kimble MA, Young LY, . eds. Vancouver WA: Applied Therapeutics, 1995.
3. Avery's Drug Treatment. 4th ed. Speight TM, Holford NHG. Auckland NZ: Adis International Limited, 1997.
4. CPS: Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties. 32nd ed. Gillis MC, ed. Ottawa ON: Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, 1997.
5. Drugs of Choice: A Formulary for General Practice. Levine M, Lexchin J, Pellizzari R, eds. Ottawa ON: Canadian Medical Association, 1995.
6. The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy. 16th ed. Berkow R, ed. Rathway NJ: Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, 1992.
7. Pharmacotherapy; A Pathophysiologic Approach. 3rd ed. DiPiro JT, Talbert RL, Yee GC, Matzke GR, Wells BG, Posey LM, eds. Stamford CT: Appleton & Lange, 1997.
8. Textbook of Therapeutics: Drug and Disease Management. 6th ed. Herfindal ET, Gourley DR. Baltimore MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1996.
9. Therapeutic Choices. 1st ed. Gray J, ed. Ottawa ON: Canadian Pharmaceutical Association, 1995.
10. Medical Subject Headings-Annotated Alphabetic List. 1997 ed. Bethesda MD: National Institutes of Health. National Library of Medicine, 1996.
11. Medical Subject Headings-Tree Structures. 1997 ed. Bethesda MD: National Institurtes of Health. National Library of Medicine, 1996.
12. Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 28th ed. Philadelphia PA: W.B. Saunders Co., 1994.
13. Hospital Pharmacy in Canada: 1995/96 Annual Report. 10th ed. Scarborough ON: Eli Lilly Canada, 1996.
14. Pharmacy Management in Canada. Archambault A, Bachynsky JA, Segal HJ, eds. Toronto ON: Grosvenor House Press Inc, 1989.
15. Cohen K. Glossary. In: Ito SM, Blackburn S, eds. A Pharmacist's Guide to Principles and Practices of Managed Care Pharmacy. Alexandria VA: Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy, 1995: 177-185.
16. Foy E, Grant SM, Giddens AK, Hingston PM. The Pharmacist's Personal Filing System: A Suggested Scheme. Update [College of Pharmacy. Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS] 1984 Apr-Jun; 13(2): [1-4].