Pharmacy Books
Submitted by QWong on Tue, 2006/04/18 - 1:16pm.
Hi all,
First of all I'll like to say hello to everyone. I've been popping in and out of this forum and have found the information here very useful. I have a quick question about books :)
I've recently completed my internship in London and in the process of preparing for the registration exam over in HK. If everything goes well I'll be taking the exam in December. Over in the UK we have a few standard books that we keep in the dispensary at all times and some of these are BNF (British National Formulary), drug tariff and Martindale. Would anyone know that Hong Kong equivalant of these? Also would there be any books you recommend for OTC things?
Thanks a lot for anyones help and good luck to everyone who have exams ahead.
QWong
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Pharmacy books
Hi Qwong, Hong Kong is also using the British Pharmacopoeia as well as the british pharmaceutical codex.. For OTCs, the most used book here in Hong Kong is MIMS, you could order it through the net.. Yeah! if your planning to have your exam here in Hong Kong, be sure that you bring along with you your books during your review period.. coz in here, its really difficult to look for some pharmacy books.:)
QWong, What books you should
QWong,
What books you should keep depends on your practice. I find BNF and MIMS quite useful for general information. Martindale is good too. The AHSF Drug Information provides details on most drugs, but does not include some drugs which are not registered in USA. US PDR contains the package inserts of USA registered drugs, with the same limitation as AHSF DI. Drug in Pregnancy and Lactation by Briggs is good when you need it. Handbook on Non-prescription Drugs gives you a good review of OTC drugs, but you have to apply it wisely because the OTC products may be different in different countries.
Actually all books suffer from the problem of being outdated. And there is limitless number of books you can buy, depending on what you do with it. If you are a drug information pharmacist, you would need journals as well as books. If you work in a HA hospital, they will usually have access to Micromedex, which is really fascinating.
If you have limited budget and space for books, the internet can often be a good source of drug information through the common search engines. But you must be very very careful on the credibility of these sites.
Book or drug information lists are really endless. I suggest you not to buy a lot of them and bring them back to HK. Wait until you know what field of pharmacy you will be in before buying. You can buy books through internet very easily these days.
Lastly, for studying for Board exam, there is no standard books. Your need to revise what you know from your old notes. To study for the legislation paper, you should attend the course offered by the Pharmaceutical Society of Hong Kong, which is taught by officials from the department of Health of Hong Kong.
Michael