Drug companies monitor web chat for adverse reaction reports
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《英国医生杂志》
Drug companies are harvesting comments posted on the internet about drug side effects using new computer technology. NetRank, a UK based internet consultancy, said this week that at least one "well known drug company" is using a product called i-reputation, which monitors the internet for postings about specific products.
Critics of the pharmaceutical industry expressed concern about the way the information might be used. The technology is based on a computer program developed for the mobile phone maker Motorola to track comments about its products in internet chat rooms and other online forums. The system deploys autonomous software "robots" that roam the internet looking for a key word, such as the name of a drug together with up to five "operator words," such as headache, nausea, depression, euphoria and lightheadedness. Pieces of text containing these terms are then copied back to a central computer for analysis.
Among internet enthusiasts, such programs are widely known as "spyware." John Straw, NetRank's chief executive, said that the system posed no threat to privacy, however. The internet has become a "grandstand for concerns about medicines," with such comments already in the public domain, he said. The law would not allow companies to contact patients posting remarks.
Mr Straw said that companies could use the software to detect patterns among reports posted in "free text" that might otherwise be dismissed as anecdote.
"Potentially we can identify issues six to nine months earlier than through conventional reporting channels." He would not say which companies are using the service. The Financial Times reported last week that NetRank has been "discussing" the service with Glaxo SmithKline, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson. None of the companies would comment.
Campaigners on pharmaceutical industry issues said that the industry would be likely to use data gathered through the system to arm themselves against potential claims rather than to strengthen the mechanism of patient reporting. "The potential to put this data to good use is there," said Charles Medawar of Social Audit. "However, I have seen no evidence that this potential is being recognised." Mr Medawar said that drug companies already regularly monitor a website that he runs on the effects of antidepressants.
Andrew Bryce of the Lariam Action support network said that the industry would be "far better served applying `spyware' to its own documentation on adverse effects. Frequently warnings in product safety literature that appear in one country do not get published on a worldwide basis for years, if at all."
Mr Bryce and Mr Medawar agreed that if the development meant that pharmaceutical companies were taking patients' reports more seriously, that would be a good thing, however.(Michael Cross)
Critics of the pharmaceutical industry expressed concern about the way the information might be used. The technology is based on a computer program developed for the mobile phone maker Motorola to track comments about its products in internet chat rooms and other online forums. The system deploys autonomous software "robots" that roam the internet looking for a key word, such as the name of a drug together with up to five "operator words," such as headache, nausea, depression, euphoria and lightheadedness. Pieces of text containing these terms are then copied back to a central computer for analysis.
Among internet enthusiasts, such programs are widely known as "spyware." John Straw, NetRank's chief executive, said that the system posed no threat to privacy, however. The internet has become a "grandstand for concerns about medicines," with such comments already in the public domain, he said. The law would not allow companies to contact patients posting remarks.
Mr Straw said that companies could use the software to detect patterns among reports posted in "free text" that might otherwise be dismissed as anecdote.
"Potentially we can identify issues six to nine months earlier than through conventional reporting channels." He would not say which companies are using the service. The Financial Times reported last week that NetRank has been "discussing" the service with Glaxo SmithKline, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson. None of the companies would comment.
Campaigners on pharmaceutical industry issues said that the industry would be likely to use data gathered through the system to arm themselves against potential claims rather than to strengthen the mechanism of patient reporting. "The potential to put this data to good use is there," said Charles Medawar of Social Audit. "However, I have seen no evidence that this potential is being recognised." Mr Medawar said that drug companies already regularly monitor a website that he runs on the effects of antidepressants.
Andrew Bryce of the Lariam Action support network said that the industry would be "far better served applying `spyware' to its own documentation on adverse effects. Frequently warnings in product safety literature that appear in one country do not get published on a worldwide basis for years, if at all."
Mr Bryce and Mr Medawar agreed that if the development meant that pharmaceutical companies were taking patients' reports more seriously, that would be a good thing, however.(Michael Cross)