Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : February 2002

Adis LMS Drug Alerts Improved

Adis LMS Drug Alerts (File 173) has been a valued source of highly structured evaluations of key papers from the international medical and biomedical journals on drugs, drug therapy, adverse drug reactions, and pharmacoeconomics.

This file is now reloaded with the new title "Adis Clinical Trials Insight" and a number of major improvements. The file has been divided into two files: File 173 contains data from July 2000 to the present and will update weekly (subscriber File 973); File 373 contains data from 1982 to July 2000 (subscriber File 873).

The major improvements to the file are content and search related. Fulltext structured assessments appear in all records in File 173 and some records in File 373. Clinical relevance ratings, phase of study, study details, and treatments can now be searched. In addition, many new fields were added to improve searching capability.

Search Features. Adis evaluates each study to include analysis of the positive and negative features of the study: Adis comments (NT=), Adis evaluation score (ES=), results highlights (RH=), outcome (OT=), and study messages (SM=). All this information can be searched using the EV suffix, e.g. S PHARMACOKINETICS(1W) NARATRIPTAN/EV.

Every part of this evaluation can also be searched separately, e.g. S AE=CLEAR STUDY AIM.

• Evaluation scores are based on the adequacy of the data provided by the report and are an accumulation of the individual scores awarded to elements of the study design and conduct. Scores are categorized as: 86-100 -- Excellent trial; 71-85 -- Good to very good trial; 50-70 -- Fair trial; < 50 -- Unacceptable trial or results require confirmation by a better designed study. The evaluation score is searchable using the ES prefix, e.g. S ES= >80.

• Adis comments provide insight on the development phase of a research drug, commercial drug information and strengths or limitations of the study. Adis comments are searchable using the NT prefix, e.g. S NT=(PREVENTION(1W)DIABETES).

• Details of the study are presented within the main text of the document and are searchable using the TX suffix, e.g. S PLACEBO(W)COMPARISON/TX. Parts of the text field can also be displayed separately.

• Clinical relevance ratings can be searched using the CI prefix, e.g. S CI=A (Study provides new evidence of clinical relevance); CI=B (Study provides supporting evidence to existing data); CI=C (Study adds no new or important information).

• Other new fields include: Study Design (SD=); Study End Points (SK=); Study Controls (TY=); Study Phase (PS=); Patient Age (PK=).

Disease Descriptors (DI=), Drug Descriptors (DE=), Pharmacoeconomic Descriptors (PR=), and Other Descriptors (OD=) can be searched separately, e.g. S ALLERGY TREATMENT/DI. All these descriptors are also searchable using the DE suffix, e.g. S INFLAMMATION TREATMENT/DE.

A search in this file will provide invaluable information in a therapeutic area on trial results, clinical significance, product applications and cost analysis–facts that would normally take extensive research to compile and analyze. Adis Clinical Trials Insight is also available on DataStar (ACTI).

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