ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2011
Relevance of a "Dear Doctor letter" to alert healthcare providers to new recommendations for vitamin D administration.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Additional Value of an E-Mail to Inform Healthcare Professionals of a Drug Safety Issue: A Randomized Controlled Trial in the Netherlands.Drug safety · 2013Trial
- Challenges in the Implementation of EU Risk Minimisation Measures for Medicinal Products in Clinical Practice Guidelines: Mixed Methods Multi-Case Study.Drug safety · 2025Article
- Implementation of electronic distribution of Direct Healthcare Professional Communications by the Danish Medicines Agency: a survey study of physicians' experiences and preferences.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2025Article
- Dear Doctor Letters regarding citalopram and escitalopram: guidelines vs real-world data.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2023Article
- [Effect of the direct healthcare professional communication on citalopram and escitalopram drug utilization for inpatient treatment of anxiety disorders].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2022Article
- Survery of healthcare professionals to assess the awareness, knowledge and self-reported behavior regarding recent fluoroquinolones safety issues.Medicine and pharmacy reports · 2021Article
- Article
- Comparative, cross-sectional study of the format, content and timing of medication safety letters issued in Canada, the USA and the UK.BMJ open · 2018Article
- Inappropriate crushing information on ward lists: cytotoxic drugs, capsules, and modified release formulations are gravely neglected.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2014Article
- The past, present and perhaps future of pharmacovigilance: homage to Folke Sjoqvist.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAfter reports of malaise in infants immediately after the oral administration of two brands of vitamin D solutions, a "Dear Doctor letter" (DDL) containing recommendations for the administration of vitamin D was sent to all French paediatricians and pharmacies and a large number of French general practitioners (GPs) with a predominantly paediatric practice. The DDL and a press release were published on the French Medicines Agency website and distributed via a mailing list. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of such a DDL and to collect the opinions of healthcare professionals on the best way to provide them with information.
methodsA questionnaire was sent to a national random sample of 145 paediatricians, 680 GPs and 230 pharmacists.
resultsOnly 49% of responding paediatricians, 48% of GPs and 67% of pharmacists were aware of the warning. Among the participating healthcare professionals aware of the warning and who prescribed/dispensed these vitamins, 50% of paediatricians and 68% of GPs stated that they had changed their prescribing behaviour, and 68% of pharmacists stated that they had modified their advice when dispensing. According to the responding healthcare professionals, postal letters remained the best way to issue safety warnings. Some of the respondents suggested that the DDL be more distinctive in terms of being a DDL and that the information be more widely disseminated to other stakeholders involved in the healthcare system.
conclusionsThis survey of a national random sample of healthcare professionals revealed that many of the respondents paid little attention to the DDL and were therefore unlikely to change their practices. A potential supplementary method for disseminating recommendations for medicine administration could be to apply stickers on medicine boxes, as this approach has the additional advantage of directly informing the concerned population, i.e. the parents.
Indexed as
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.