Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DGI, INC. RE-LAUNCHES ITS GLOBAL DATABASE PROFILE RESOURCE

November 11, 2009, Arlington, VA, USA. – DGI, Inc. is proud to announce the re-launch of its online subscription resource of international pharmacoepidemiology and population database profiles: B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA (SM) (www.bridgetodata.org). B.R.I.D.G.E. (Benefit-Risk Information for DruG Evaluations) is an updated version of the previous online subscription (BRIDGE On-Line (SM)- www.dgiinc.org), as well as the RAD-AR (Risk Assessment of Drugs-Analysis & Response) handbooks.

There is a growing need for diverse population healthcare studies, and choice of a database demands detailed knowledge of its source, structure, and population. This online tool is valuable for epidemiology researchers who must select the optimal informative data source. B.R.I.D.G.E. allows users to:

  • Choose databases that help in comparing two or more drugs in terms of their adverse side effects;
  • Identify healthcare database resources to develop teaching materials for faculty or students;
  • Find country-specific data to conduct a population study describing drug utilization and/or costs by demographic and diagnostic groups;
  • Find all possible databases with sufficient exposure and/or outcomes related information for pharmacoepidemiology studies, pharmacoeconomic studies, and descriptive studies;
  • Compare side-by-side details from multiple databases including spontaneous reporting (FDA AERS), longitudinal (GPRD, Saskatchewan Health), claims (Thomson Reuters MarketScan® Research Databases), national statistics (NHANES, NHDS, NDI), and other database types from various countries (e.g., USA, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, S. Korea, Taiwan, UK).


DGI’s philosophy is to make its profiles current and standardized and intends to make B.R.I.D.G.E. a premier global resource for population healthcare research. B.R.I.D.G.E. is optimized for database identification and offers features such as keyword and field searches, relevancy-ranking and comparison of multiple database profiles, grouping of search results, and retention of personal database profile collections. B.R.I.D.G.E. provides a glossary of epidemiologic terms to guide new subscribers. For a preview of these features, check out the audio-visual tutorial available at: http://www.bridgetodata.org/tutorials.

The DGI staff works closely with database managers, health professionals, and other users as they continue to identify and add more database profiles to the B.R.I.D.G.E. web site. B.R.I.D.G.E. is launching with approximately 50 database profiles and plans to add at least 150 more database profiles over the next 12 months. Through February 28, 2010, DGI is offering special introductory annual subscription rates (25-33% discount).

Inquiries can be directed to:
    Sharmila Kamani, Project Manager (skamani@bridgetodata.org), or
    Judith K. Jones, MD, PhD, Executive Director (jkjones@bridgetodata.org)
    B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA SM(www.bridgetodata.org) +1 703-894-0804

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