Question

what seperates a healthcare professional from a consumer in researching drug related information?

Answer 1

The main factor that separate a professional and a consumer in drug related information is drug abuse.In most of the cases the information available will be incomplete or misleading.If the medicines have the power to cure disease ,they have the power to cause side effects also when misused.Many a times consumers search for medicines that are over the counter medicines for cold ,fever or cough without actually undergoing adequate diagnostic test to know the underlying cause of illnes.Some drugs can even have drug interaction also.

Whereas professional research for a drug would be to get more information related to the drug like drug combination, available drug brands etc.