JAMIA: Data Mining Could Improve Drug Safety

Medical data mining proves helpful for predicting adverse drug events, according to a study in the May edition of Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Prescription drugs can be associated with adverse effects that are unrecognized despite evidence in the medical literature, as shown by rofecoxib's (Vioxx, Merck) late recall in 2004, wrote researchers Kanaka D. Shetty, MD, and Siddhartha Dalal, PhD, MBA, from Rand, in Santa Monica, Calif.