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Peter Goacher is the sales manager
of electronic products for the Pharmaceutical Press
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On 1 July, the Pharmaceutical Press (the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
publications division) launched Medicines Complete, a new online service.
This is an online library housing a range of pharmacy, pharmaceutical
and health care databases and acting as a single source of unbiased,
integrated reference works.
The MedicinesComplete home page: www.medicinescomplete.com |
MedicinesComplete is designed to meet the needs of health care and pharmacy
professionals who need fast, dependable access to evaluated drug information
whether they are on a ward, in the pharmacy, in their office or at home.
At the click of a mouse, a library,
designed by professionals, can be searched. Moreover, frequent updates
allow users to have the latest clinical information at their fingertips. What can you find in MedicinesComplete?
MedicinesComplete provides web
access to some of the world’s leading drug and health care reference
works including Martindale, the British National Formulary, Stockley’s
Drug Interactions, Herbal Medicines, Pharmaceutical Excipients, Dietary
Supplements and Clarke’s Analysis of Drugs and Poisons. The service
brings all these publications together on a common platform but subscribers
can “pick and mix”, choosing those that best suit their needs.
One or more titles can be subscribed to with annual
licences available for individuals, groups or organisations.
Other invaluable information available
includes:
· Up-to-date guidance on disease treatments, disease management and
therapeutics
· Vital data for quantifying drugs in biological and non-biological samples
and
formulating medicines
· Over 100,000 references to international research, scientific papers,
guidelines, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, reports and case studies
Search all publications simultaneously
These days we are all familiar
with what makes a user-friendly website and the Pharmaceutical Press
has worked hard to ensure that MedicinesComplete falls into this category.
A special feature of the suite is the integrated search. This allows
users to search across all publications simultaneously, extracting results
from thousands of drug, poison, excipient,
interaction and herbal monographs. Instant results are first presented
by best match, with the opportunity to enter specific databases to view
the documents retrieved. Advanced search options are also available.
Those who are familiar with the print
editions of publications, such as Martindale and Stockley, will immediately
see the benefit of being able to locate information swiftly in more than
just the one title. Different packages of MedicinesComplete publications
will be promoted to a mixture of customers including the NHS and the
retail and corporate sectors. Online training on how the service can
be used to suit individual needs will eventually be available to all
customers. For larger groups, on-site training can be arranged.
The addition of existing and new titles to the library, from both the
Pharmaceutical Press and other publishers, is planned. The
introduction of active links between publications will ensure that the
busy pharmacist or drug information officer is able to make the best
possible use of the resource as it grows. Discussions are under way with
several publishers for the integration of their materials within the
MedicinesComplete suite, adding value for both specific and wider areas
of the health care profession.
Global appeal
Having identified potential partners around the world,
the Pharmaceutical Press anticipates that MedicinesComplete will soon
be recognised as the essential “one stop shop”. In addition,
there is scope for the integration of local information. Distribution
partners in France, Italy, Germany and Scandinavia will be working with
the Pharmaceutical Press UK and North American sales teams to promote
MedicinesComplete to schools of pharmacy, hospitals, retail premises,
prisons, pharmaceutical companies and other organisations.
Try it for yourself
Information about each of the databases can be
found on the MedicinesComplete home page. For those who would like to
try MedicinesComplete
for free, visit the site, click on “Trials” and register
for an automatic 24-hour access
period. Applications can be made online if you wish to extend your trial
or would like to enable your organisation to evaluate the
resource. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal