I highly recommend researchers in the field of pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacoeconomics, and related disciplines to use BTD to identify a suitable database which will meet the needs of their research. Also, pharmaceutical companies should look more often at the databases described by BTD if they are required to conduct PASS studies.

B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA has been very helpful for initial screening data sources for a potential epi study. It provides broad, thorough, and detailed information on each database listed in the system.  It has been a wonderful tool to have, especially for feasibility evaluation.

I learned from my own experience that both in academia and pharmaceutics, prompt identification and selection of an adequate database is very important. In an academic setting, analyzing data from registries is particularly of great advantage in countries with limited financial resources for research which requires significant investment. In pharmaceuticals there is an increasing request from regulatory authorities for companies to conduct post-authorization safety studies. B.R.I.D.G.E. TO DATA (BTD) contains detailed descriptions of databases from more than 50 countries, including descriptions of pregnancy registries. It is impressive that using BTD one can find information on databases even from small countries.