A helpful person has suggested that I provide more specifics on the
question I posted to MEDLIB-L last week (quoted below).

In the course of responding to a clinical reference question (concerning
the relationship between pancreatitis and HMG-COA Reductase Inhibitors)
we discovered the FDA AERS system. It looked like a good resource to
help with question, but it was available from the FDA in the form of raw
data files only. We were not able to find a commerical or public source
for a searchable AERS interface, although it appears that the University
of Missouri School of Journalism may provide access for a suscription fee.

We wonder if we've somehow missed something here? Does anyone know a
straightforward way to access AERS data? Does anyone have experience
using AERS in a library or hosptial setting?

If we can find no reasonable online access to AERS, then we will
probably continue to discuss it with our informatics folks. We will have
to determine whether the data is useful enough to warrant building our
own instance of the data on oracle and providing our clinicians and
scientists with access. 

On a more editorial note, it strikes me personally that it's odd that
FDA provides the data but no real access. Is this a case of protecting
the pharmaceutical industry through obscurity or am I being paranoid?

Stuart 


|===============================|
| Stuart Spore 
| Associate Director for Systems 
| Ehrman Medical Library 
| NYU School of Medicine 
| 550 First Ave. 
| New York, NY 10016  
| v: 212.263.1092
| f: 212.263.6534 
| e: [log in to unmask] 
|================================|

----- Original Message -----
From: Stuart Spore <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, December 15, 2005 12:35 pm
Subject: "Adverse Event Reporting System" (AERS)

> Does anyone out there have any experience with the "Adverse Event
> Reporting System" (AERS) from the FDA? They have raw data files
> available on their web site but provide no search interface. It's at
> http://www.fda.gov/cder/aers/default.htm
> 
> Stuart Spore
> 
> 
> |===============================|
> | Stuart Spore 
> | Associate Director for Systems 
> | Ehrman Medical Library 
> | NYU School of Medicine 
> | 550 First Ave. 
> | New York, NY 10016  
> | v: 212.263.1092
> | f: 212.263.6534 
> | e: [log in to unmask] 
> |================================|
> 
>