Description of the DDI-Explorer

DDI-Explorer represents a multifaceted tool for identifying drug interactions for a single drug substance or for a number of drugs or drug products prescribed for patients. Identifying all DDIs data (the drug interaction text in DDI-Explorer is based on information provided by reputable drug information sources including the USP-DI, The American Hospital Formulary Service, Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia, Philip Hansten, Ivan Stockley, Facts and Comparisons, Martin Rizack, D’Arcy and Griffin, and the German Rote Liste) is a definitive prerequisite to minimize potentially life-threatening prescribing errors.

DDI-Explorer aims to assume the position of the most efficient DDIs management system capable of providing essential information to healthcare professionals in a timely manner. DDI-Explorer was developed in a bid to reconcile and overcome the shortcomings of existing traditional sources of DDIs data by ensuring comprehensive coverage of it and accessibility to relevant information in other reputable sources accurately and swiftly.

Users of DDI-Explorer would include doctors, dentists, pharmacists, consultant pharmacists, nurses and drug information officers working within a healthcare team. Such individuals may work in public or private hospitals, clinics, private practices, independent and chain pharmacies, mail order pharmacies, mass merchandisers, food stores, home care, long-term care, nursing homes, schools and camps.

One of the most prominent benefits of using DDI-Explorer is its ability to reference the source of any data item accessed by or reported through it; this means that information provided by DDI-Explorer is evidence-based. The importance of this reporting feature becomes clear once you take into account that the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) has researched and identified such evidence for members of only five drug categories, representing less than 100 substances, while close to 45% representing about 4,100 cases of drug interaction cases reported by the United States Pharmacopeia – Drug Information (USP-DI), are not tied to other major references. This is not only applicable to USP-DI but also to other well-known sources that provide drug interaction information.

DDI-Explorer also offers several types of searches besides the basic search, such as Drug induced effects (IEs) search. IEs may be defined as some effect that is responsible for producing some side effect(s) of drugs together with their "Therapeutic Effect". If two drugs with similar IE, are concurrently administered, then such effect(s) will be additive.

The core database of DDI-Explorer contains:

Approximately 42,000 names of generic drugs or herbs and approximately 175,000 names of branded drug products - the interrelation between all these items is accurately defined and documented;
Data dictionaries which consist of Generic Drug Names and Brand Name Dictionaries that accommodate all names of a drug as provided by Martindale: The Extra Pharmacopoeia, the USP-DI, and the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. These names have been categorized in different ways to allow the utmost control of data. The attributes for any data element including 5,500 records form pharmaceutical manufacturers, 7,500 records for therapeutic uses of brand products, 600 records of therapeutic classes and sub-classes of generic drugs, and 350 records for pharmaceutical dosage forms are all accommodated. The unique data and code structures of these dictionaries contribute to the efficient management of the global interaction database.
Extensive documentation of all know liver enzymes and transporters (6,525 records), up-to-date definition of ATC-Classification system (5,200 records), listing of all known drugs induced effect (6,500 record) and listing of all known targets of drugs (4,630 record). These are subject to continuous updating.
In addition to the information related to branded drug product mentioned above, DDI-Explorer’s database includes close to 4,000 IAs cases that have been reported by several herbal information sources such as Natural Medicines (5th edition), the E-Commission and other official European and Chinese herbal textbooks. Also, the names of herbal branded products and nutritional supplement in the EU and the US represent a fundamental part of DDI-Explorer database.

It is important to note that because DDI-Explorer accesses several data references discrepancies are sometimes noted. In such cases it is imperative that such discrepancies are reconciled and each case is adequately weighed and/or evaluated. This task can be accomplished in a relatively short period of time since the drug interaction database for each reference has been impeccably referenced and displayed.

DDI-Explorer’s output is presented through different matrices that provide a comprehensive picture of all interacting entities in a concise fashion; this applies to all aspects of interaction including drug-to-drug, enzyme-to-drug and target-to-drug.