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The Medical Letter and Accompanying Resources Now Available OnlineThe Medical Letter Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1958, offers objective analysis of new drugs through two newsletters, The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics and Treatment Guidelines. The newsletters provide unbiased critical evaluation of new drugs, appraisal of new drugs for effectiveness, toxicity and cost, discussion of possible alternatives, as well as reviews of new non-drug treatments and new diagnostic aids. Newsletters are supported entirely by subscription fees and contain no advertising. Both newsletters are now available online through HSLS. Content can be searched by issue, by a search box, and by table of contents. The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics evaluates new drugs and reviews older drugs when important new information becomes available on their usefulness or adverse effects. It is published every other week, with online access available from 1988 to present. Treatment Guidelines provides recommendations for first choice and alternative drugs, and comparative assessments of the drugs’ effectiveness, safety and cost. Recommendations are made for treating many major conditions. Published monthly, the online version includes 2001 to present. In addition to the two newsletters, the HSLS subscription contains a full suite of electronic handbooks and databases including: The Adverse Drug Interactions Program searches for interactions between two and up to 50 drugs. This program will list each of the drugs and generate an interactions report. The Handbook of Antimicrobial Therapy contains information on the treatment of infectious diseases. It specifies the drugs of choice for every type of infection, with their dosages and adverse effects. Drugs of Choice contains selected articles previously published in Treatment Guidelines and The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics. A small collection of patient education brochures provide full color high quality PDF documents on hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc., with more topics in development. The Medical Letter Web site is regularly updated and provides access to selected articles in the Public Reading Room and in the Direct-to-Consumer section features unbiased information on drugs that have been strongly marketed by the pharmaceutical industry to consumers through advertisements. For a fee, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC faculty and staff can download the handheld editions of The Medical Letter, and register to participate in The Medical Letter’s continuing medical education program. Access to The Medical Letter and its content is available from the HSLS Electronic Journals by Title Web page <www.hsls.pitt.edu/resources/ejournals/titles/M>. For questions or comments about any HSLS resource, please call 412-648-8796 or e-mail medlibq@pitt.edu. --Charles B. Wessel |
