PubDrug update

April 27th, 2007 Stewart

Just a very quick note to let everyone know I’ve updated PubDrug’s main page again. Mostly it was a much needed clean-up of old posts, but I also added a current list of all certified drug monographs. By my count, we currently have 17 certified monographs, with several more in-process.

Another PubDrug editor and contributor is also working on a new record form, a type of evidence-based synopsis of major drug trials. Not ready for prime time just yet, but we should have a major unveiling before too long.

Lastly, this summer, the PubDrug steering committee here at UB will be working on internal documentation and streamlining the editorial process, including adding Mediawiki-style templates, categories pages, and other wiki enhancements.

If anyone has questions about PubDrug, feel free to post them here or to e-mail me. Thanks!

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I don’t do flowcharts…

March 20th, 2007 Stewart


That said, here’s my first effort at using Gliffy to map out workflow on PubDrug. Any suggestions or ideas would be most welcome. I’ll be editing it considerably in the weeks to come.

Posted in gliffy, informatics, pubdrug | 2 Comments »

Updates to Pubdrug

February 27th, 2007 Stewart

Main Page - Pubdrug

Our first several completed and certified monographs are now up. Once a monograph completes the review process it is “locked down” to be protected from malicious edits. Our certified monographs are:

This progress would not have been possible without the amazing efforts of a handful of fourth-year professional Pharm.D. students at the University at Buffalo. Their user pages are linked from the above records and I encourage everyone to visit them.

More news to come soon.

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Looking ahead with PubDrug

January 26th, 2007 Stewart

The PubDrug initiative is in a much different place now than it was a month ago. One month ago we had a slightly anemic monograph template and a few bare-boned pages devoted to content development and management.

One month later, here’s our status:

  • The University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has agreed to let P4 students on informatics rotations help develop PubDrug and two have completed their rotations. Another two will begin next week. This should continue throughout the semester.
  • The first two full drug monographs, atorvastatin and amlodipine, are almost completed and undergoing final certification. A third monograph, esomeprazole, is being readied.
  • From this work, the drug monograph template has been dramatically expanded. A rough methodology has been drafted and is being fleshed out.
  • A process for reviewing and certifying monographs has been sketched out and is being refined.
  • A reasonable, achievable goal has been set: Monographs for the top 200 drugs by the end of 2007.

Let’s be clear: There are many issues still needing to be resolved. Certification is a reasonable enough method for conducting editorial review, but a strong editorial body is needed to assume responsibility for doing the work. Many of the methods that have been devised will need to continue to be tested over the coming months. And, the general stigma about wikis as a content management system continues to plague these efforts somewhat, although the response today was overwhelmingly positive.

I wish to publicly thank Amy Jo and Bill for all their amazing work this past month. Bill has, in particular, gone above and beyond the call for this project — His output will guide our continuing efforts for a long time to come. I also want to thank PIC director Linda Catanzaro for her continued commitment to this project.

It’s been a long week. I’m heading home. I’ll get back to posting regularly next week.

Posted in informatics, pubdrug, university at buffalo | 4 Comments »

PubDrug student presentation

January 26th, 2007 Stewart

Bill Loeffler and Amy Jo Michnik are both in their fourth professional year of the Pharm.D. program here at UB. This past month, they were both assigned to pharmacoinformatics clinical rotations. I was very fortunate to get to work with both of them — They did amazingly complex and detailed work in developing the PubDrug monograph and creating the first two such monographs for the database.

This afternoon, they finished off their rotation by presenting on all the amazing work they have done for PubDrug. I didn’t record their presentation, but they were gracious enough to share their slides:

I will have more to write about PubDrug later today.

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Bibliometric tools you can use…

January 24th, 2007 Stewart

The State of the Union in Words: A Look at the 34,000 State of the Union Words Delivered of George W. Bush - New York Times

Interesting to compare Bush’s use of, say, “education” or “school” compared with “terrorists” or “Iraq.” And being able to quickly see those words in context is especially cool.

Bibliometrics rocks.

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PubDrug.org - An open access proposal

November 9th, 2006 Stewart

Main Page - PubDrug.org

For the last several years, I’ve watched as the cost of drug resources has continued to escalate, reaching a point where even large-scale institutions like the University at Buffalo really cannot afford the licensing for the kinds of resources we need for our educational, clinical and research initiatives.

Yesterday, I conducted a public forum to announce the creation of PubDrug.org, an open access drug resource I hope to develop which would serve as an alternative to other high-dollar drug information sources. As I explained to the attendees, this is only the bare-bones beginning of PubDrug — We will need to attract the interest of many others for this effort to be a success.

If you see the potential need for something like PubDrug, I would encourage you to take a moment to download my slides and read them over. I see roles for editors, contributors, and developers, and I’m sure there are many more roles I’m not thinking of.

I believe our three most immediate tasks to be:

  • Developing a robust template for drug monographs

  • Creating policies and procedures to guide site development without interfering with the viral nature of wiki-building

  • Recruiting lots of people to assist in building this resource

Again, I’m sure there’s a lot I’m not thinking of. If you think this effort has merit, please contact me and let me know if you will be able to help. And thank you for reading.

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