MEDMARX 6.0 Is Launched

The United States Pharmacopeia has launched Version 6.0 for its MEDMARX program. MEDMARX is an Internet-accessible, anonymous reporting program that allows hospital personnel to voluntarily report, track, and trend data, incorporating nationally standardized data elements. Hospitals subscribe to MEDMARX as part of their internal quality-improvement process. Subscribers can review errors entered by other participants in "real time" and also can view any reported action taken by other institutions in response to an error.

The newest version enables users to track all types of adverse drug events. The adverse-drugreaction element incorporates the Naranjo Probability Assessment, which is a validated tool for determining the odds that a specific reaction is due to a given drug. Other features of MEDMARX 6.0 include the following:

• Access to an expanding data set of searchable and retrievable data, facilitating on-line analysis
• Access to a national database to learn from others' experiences and to provide data to Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committees when considering drugs for addition to the formulary
• Elimination of reentry of information and facilitating communication with the FDA by seamlessly populating the FDA Medwatch Form

MEDMARX's database currently includes >750,000 records and is expected to exceed 1 million records by early 2005. For more information, visit www.usp.org, or call 877-MEDMARX.