Creation of Drug Information Database based on Pharmaceutical Markup Language (PML)

Abstract

Utilizing the standard generalized markup language (SGML) of drug package inserts,extensible markup language (XML) documents were prepared through detailed markup based on the definitions of pharmaceutical markup language (PML).The prepared PML documents were stored in an XML-native database,enabling content searches of indexes based on the detailed markup of phrases and sentences describing signs and symptoms.This made it possible to search not only for whole sentences indicating signs and symptoms but also various expressions describing changes in blood pressure and pulse that do not necessarily match as regards spelling.In the present study,we investigated detailed markup methods for PML using existing SGML documents,and converted package inserts for 196 products into PML documents.With special emphasis on adverse reactions,we examined the usefulness of the PML documents by retrieving content from the database using XPath.