A AAultifaceted Medical Data Information System and One Product: The Index-Handbook of Ototoxic Agents.

This paper describes the creation and development of a biomedical information system that includes a machine-readable data base containing clinical and research data and a publication entitled the Index-Handbook of Ototoxic Agents. This system provides for compilation of tables of data and it could be used in an interactive mode. Basic to the system is the construction of a profile to facilitate extraction of data from the literature and the development of a format in which to present this data in a brief, informative surrogate. The history and plan of the project and the methods used for search of the literature and file construction are described. The paper also discusses the presentation of data in journal articles and suggests that editors of journals concerned with drug information should be encouraged to require that all articles contain a standard amount of data presented in an unambiguous form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]