Big jump in users of medicine information website
Monday 6th March 2017
A total of 4,661,057 visitors were recorded accessing the medicine information websitewww.medicines.ie
in 2016, an increase of 12% on 2015.
Run by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA), www.medicines.ieis the most comprehensive source of information on medicinal products available in Ireland and is widely regarded as an invaluable reference source by healthcare professionals and the general public. It is currently the 2nd most popular health website in Ireland.
The information for each product comes in the form of a Summary of Product Characteristics (known as the SPC or SmPC), and Patient Information Leaflet (known as the PIL, Package Leaflet or PL) where relevant, which are approved by the Health Products and Regulatory Authority or European Medicines Agency as part of the process of authorising the product for sale or supply in Ireland.
The site is continuously updated by pharmaceutical companies whenever new products are launched or the information in the SPC or PIL of an existing product changes.
Latest analysis shows that new visits in 2016 were up by 12% on the same period in 2015 at 2,840,883. Visitors viewed an average of 1.65 pages per visit and the average time on the site for each visit was 1.15 minutes. This suggests that visitors were searching within the site and spending time viewing product information.
Commenting on the visitor data, IPHA Chief Executive Oliver O’Connor said: “The use of the web by those seeking health information continues to grow and it is critical to patient safety that this information is accurate and reliable. That visits to www.medicines.ie continue to grow, is a clear indication that the site is viewed as the primary source to rapidly find high quality, up to date, regulatory authority approved information”.
ENDS
For information contact Philip Hannon at 01 6344390 or 087 2870891
