Medical Information Department Research Articles

Quality standards in drug and medical information departments

Quality standards in the enquiry answering function of health service drug information units and of pharmaceutical industry medical information departments are studied by an interview/questionnaire survey. Factors examined include the use of standardised and documented procedures, adherence to published guidelines, methods of evaluating quality, and the impact of ISO 9000 certification.

Medical information in the UK pharmaceutical industry

The medical information role within UK pharmaceutical companies is well established. This article describes the functions of a typical medical information department and discusses the formal and informal qualifications required to undertake this type of work and outlines the training involved. The tools available to the medical information professional are described and suggestions made as to how the role might develop in the future. Medical information departments are in a position to add value to the company’s business and are an important interface with external customers.

The Needs and the Current Status in Medical Informatics Education at the National Medical Schools in Japan —Analysis of Questionnaires to Medical Information Departments—

The Needs and the Current Status in Medical Informatics Education at the National Medical Schools in Japan —Analysis of Questionnaires to Medical Information Departments—

Globalizing Medical Information Services at Eli Lilly and Company

The need for a global medical information group at Eli Lilly and Company was identified in 1994. As a result, the Global Medical Information (GMI) Department was formed. GMI began the globalization process by benchmarking other pharmaceutical companies and by surveying Lilly affiliate medical information groups. GMI then initiated a global medical information conference which validated the globalization plans, identified needs and issues, provided resource solutions, and established a communication network. These initial steps were followed by the development of needed resources such as global response documents, bibliographic citation databases, and a call-tracking system. Training programs were initiated, and regional communication plans were implemented. The creation of GMI has led to an increase in the capabilities of medical information departments worldwide. GMI has helped affiliates reduce duplication of effort, increase consistency in responses, and provide higher quality and more timely information to requesting customers in support of Lilly pharmaceuticals.

“Aboutness” and Other Problems of Text Retrieval in the Pharmaceutical Industry

In-house text databases of biomedical publications, as used by medical information departments in the pharmaceutical industry, are described in terms of their general features and styles of use. Problems in their upkeep include loss of precision in searching as the volume of publications grows, inconsistency in contents and in indexing philosophy, thesaurus maintenance, and the handling of newly emergent concepts or terms. The need to capture implicit information and the “aboutness” of documents impose heavy requirements for intellectual effort, but are essential for effective retrieval. Another conflict is between the need to identify specific documents and the need to create syntheses of state-of-the-art information in the form of knowledge bases. The extraction of meaning as opposed to the identification of possibly relevant documents remains a central task for information retrieval in the pharmaceutical industry.

Raltitrexed and the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer

Objective. Colorectal cancer is the second largest cause of death from malignant disease in Western countries. Although surgical resection is the preferred treatment in early disease, chemotherapy has an important role to play both as an adjunct to surgery and in the palliation of advanced disease. For many years 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) has been the only cyto toxic drug with significant activity in this condition and, recently, considerable effort has been directed toward enhancing its activity and finding better, alternative agents. Recently, raltitrexed (Tomudex; Zeneca Pharmaceuticals), the first of a new class of cytotoxic drugs, the selective, direct, thymidylate synthase inhibitors, received its first regulatory ap proval for the first-line treatment of advanced colo rectal cancer. The purpose of this review is to con sider the efficacy, toxicity, and resource implications of using this new antineoplastic agent, alongside developments that have been made in the more effective use of fluoropyrimidines, and the place of drug treatment in the management of colorectal cancer. Data Sources. A variety of sources were used, including manual and on-line (Medline and Pharm- line) literature searching. Approved and other drug names were used as primary search terms, linked with colorectal cancer where limitation was required. The medical information department of Zeneca Pharma ceuticals also was used where appropriate. Study Selection. Particular attention was di rected to randomized clinical trials, but nonrandom ized and preclinical studies were considered where appropriate. Conclusions. Although colorectal cancer is in herently resistant to cytotoxic chemotherapy, such treatment now has an established role as an adjunct to surgery and in the palliation of advanced disease. The optimum 5-FU- based regimen has yet to be estab lished with certainty, although in advanced disease a four-times-weekly, 5-day regimen of 5-FU and low- dose folinic acid is probably the best of those fully evaluated to date. Raltitrexed seems to be as effective as this combination while having definite advantages in terms of toxicity and the resources required for its preparation and administration, although it remains to be seen to what extent these and other resource benefits will be offset by its higher cost and how its efficacy and tolerability will compare with other 5-FU- based regimens in ongoing clinical trials.

From Serum Cholesterol in Elephants to Morbidity in Nepal: An Empirical Analysis of 6,729 on-Line Searches at Boehringer Mannheim Gmbh

Boehringer Mannheim (BM), a research-based pharmaceutical company in Germany, is active in research and development, production, and marketing and sales of pharmaceutical products, diagnostic devices, and biochemicals. The Medical Information Department of BM is responsible for both the documentation of published literature pertaining to BM pharmaceutical products and the dissemination of relevant information.Objective: This study analyzes the on-line searches carried out in the information department at BM between 1989 and 1993.Material and Methods: Six thousand seven hundred and twenty nine on-line searches processed between 1989 and 1993 in the Medical Information Department in Mannheim were analyzed quantitatively with respect to the number of searches, the turnaround time for a search request, the departments ordering search requests, the number of databases searched, the databases used most often, and the role played by the in-house database. As for quality, the nature of the topics searched and the...

Review : Amifostine and other chemoprotective agents in cancer chemotherapy: A brief review

Objective. Cytotoxic chemotherapy is a frequently, and increasingly, used treatment for malignant disease and is associated with substantial toxicity. A number of drugs have been developed in recent years for the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-induced toxicity. Most are specific to one group of drugs, eg, mesna and the oxazophosphorines, or one type of toxicity, eg, the 5-HT3 antagonist antiemetics. The first multiorgan cytoprotective, amifostine, recently was launched, and another, glutathione, is under development. The purpose of this review is to con sider the agents currently available for the manage ment of cytotoxic drug-induced toxicity and their place in treatment. Special attention is directed to amifostine and drugs in development, including glu tathione, Ossirene (Baker Norton), ORG-2766, and dexrazoxane and less to agents in routine clinical use. Data sources. A variety of sources were used, including manual and on-line (Medline) literature searching. Approved and other drug names were used as the primary search terms, linked with cytotoxic chemotherapy where limitation was required. Medi cal information departments of drug companies also were used where appropriate. Study selection. Particular attention was directed to randomized clinical trials, but nonrandomised and animal studies were considered where appropriate. Conclusions. Over the past decade significant advances have been made in the control of chemo therapy-induced toxicity and new agents promise even greater control. This is important, not only because they may improve the quality of life of conventionally treated cancer patients, but also be cause they should allow the dose-response relation ship for cytotoxic drug treatment to be fully explored. Unfortunately, the data available at present are insuf ficient to determine the extent to which this promise will be fulfilled.

赤十字医薬情報部に寄せられた副作用報告の集計

赤十字医薬情報部に寄せられた副作用報告の集計

Optimizing Inquiry Activities in a Corporate Drug Information Department

A system is described which is used by a medium size pharmaceutical company for responding efficiently to professional inquiries and which has been integrated into traditional medical information department activities. Characteristics contributing to its success include structured telephone call handling, closely monitored and frequently updated form letters, response time performance criteria, use of a centralized inquiry database, local area network access to commercial literature databases, and ongoing quality control and assessment of inquirer satisfaction.

Medical record keeping in France: the French PMSI system and anaesthesiology.

For the physician, an understanding of cost-management is indispensable to preserving his independence. The PMSI system, based on medical data, as implemented by physicians, and recognized by the management staff, has demonstrated itself as a useful tool in the discussion between medical and management staffs, and the Health Authority. For anaesthesiology, its use is not only interesting, but an absolute necessity for departmental management. And, all of this is made possible with the help of computers and a medical information department for processing the data.

The Role of Information Technology in ICI Pharmaceuticals Group Medical Information Department

Innovative new forms of information technology help get the right information to the right people at the right time. Tracking databases, integrated word processing networks, and optical disk (or image) storage and retrieval are technologies that can be integrated to increase overall efficiency and productivity. This report describes the role of these tools in the Medical Information Department of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) Pharmaceuticals Group. Optical storage and retrieval is a particularly effective means of improving response time, eliminating the “lost reprint problem,” and substantially diminishing filing space requirements. This particular application of information technology has led to more effective utilization of professional staff time and higher quality responses in less time.

Information centres in the pharmaceutical industry--the prime source of drug information.

The case is argued that the prime source of information is the manufacturing company. The medical information department of an average-sized company is used as a model to support this argument.