The Drug and Poison Information Bureau

Tel: 2635 1111

Fax: 2145 7160

E-mail: dpib@med.cuhk.edu.hk

Website: dpib.med.cuhk.edu.hk

Director: Professor Julian A.J.H. Critchley

　

The Drug and Poisons Information Bureau, run by the Division of Clinical Pharmacology, was established in1987 and began providing 24-hour information service in December 1989. It gives advice to health care professionals on the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of poisoning and adverse reactions to medicines as well as on drug usage in general. It is manned by information officers who are nurses, pharmacists or junior physicians. These front-line staff are always backed up by an on-call consultant physician with a specialist interest in clinical pharmacology and toxicology. The Bureau has access to various international databases listing over 500,000 drug, chemical entities and other items as well as own accumulated local knowledge based on several decades of clinical experience and research. The scope of its experience ranges from modern medicines, traditional Chinese and other remedies, to seafood and pesticide poisoning. Since its inception over a decade ago, it has conducted substantial research. It is the leading centre in the region in terms of output of peer-reviewed publications, which currently total over 100.