Functioning of a Medical Information Unit within a Large Pharmaceutical Organization: A Methodological Approach and Review

The establishment of an effective product information unit in a large pharmaceutical company, such as Lederle Laboratories, a division of American Cyanamid Company, involves a collaboration of various human and technical resources needed to efficiently process a high volume of medical information. Special consideration must be given towards developing good avenues of communication, both outside of and within the parent company. Interrelationships must be developed with associated service groups within the organization including literary, word processing, international medical, marketing, legal, and sales/educational services, as well as associated medical research groups involved in Phase I-IV clinical trials. The existence of this communication network is essential prior to developing automated systems to facilitate information flow. Central to our information processing ability resides our drug information database and a word processing base of narrative information stored for the purpose of prompt response to inquiries. Our database, nicknamed ICD for Inquiry-Complaint-Drug Experience Reaction, is a master system consisting of 170 different attributes per record for complex adverse reaction reports, and holding as many as 20,000 separate records of spontaneous drug information requests received each year. This database is frequently utilized by our staff of medical experts, consisting of MDs, PhDs, PharmDs, Pharmacists, and RNs, who provide comprehensive, personal responses to unique inquiries and product complaints. Our Medical Information Assistants also use our ICD database, as well as stored narrative information, and consultations with literature services to aid our staff medical experts in providing thorough, timely, and rapid responses. Thus, in developing an information service for a large pharmaceutical company, we feel it is essential to centralize information storage and retrieval systems and to utilize multiple internal as well as associated medical experts in order to provide the quality medical responses anticipated from our professional “customers.”