Site Offers More Alerts Than FDA

Let's say you want to know whether new problems have been found with any medications you or your family are taking. So you check the Food and Drug Administration's Web site (http://www.fda.gov), and you find five prescription drug alerts in December 2008. Then you go to the "drug alerts" tab at http://www.consumermedsafety.org, a new site from the not-for-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Horsham, Pa. -- and you find 13 for the same period.

Not all the ISMP consumer warnings are crucial: One included news that a babysitter had given a child pet medicine. But the site is worth a check about once a month to see virtually all of the FDA's critical alerts (such as a Dec. 11 warning about possible risks of kidney damage from drugs used for colonoscopy preparation) as well as news reports that might not make it to the FDA site. A Dec. 26 ISMP alert, for example, reported on seven people who had swallowed Benadryl's stop-itching gel, a potentially fatal event. This Benadryl product is meant only for use on skin.

You can sign up on the ISMP site to receive warnings related to specific prescription drug products. But check with your physician or pharmacist before taking any action on a drug alert, says Edward Langston, a member of the American Medical Association's board of trustees, who is both a physician and a pharmacist.

The ISMP's consumer site is a tad crowded and messy, and the type for some information is too small. But a quick click on most of the home page links will give you an idea of what's available in case you need drug information another time. We especially liked a primer on reading a doctor's drug prescription: Click on "Helpful Resources" on the right side of the home page, then "How to Read Prescriptions."

-- Francesca Lunzer Kritz