November 29, 2011. Nhumi Technologies AG unveils its new web site http://drugsafety.nhumi.com providing direct access to the safety information of U.S. marketed drugs.

The web site presents adverse events reported to the U.S. FDA since 2004. It identifies the most relevant safety information and depicts it on a virtual model of the human anatomy showing body parts that are most adversely affected by a drug. Additionally, it describes all data graphically with charts and concise tables. Visitors to the site can quickly explore the safety profile of a single drug and compare it to that of other drugs. They can even focus on a specific group of patients easily by selecting the medical condition, age, gender, or co-medication that best fit their requests. 

“We are bringing health data closer to the end user”, says André Elisseeff, CEO of Nhumi. “We have developed a system to help experts and patients have direct access to drug safety facts during their daily activity. Visitors can then compare their observations to the numbers and make the right decision faster.”

One of the main issues in evaluating a drug’s safety comes from sifting through the large volume of reported data. Masses of data are collected but are buried in “Data Graveyards” such as specialized databases whose access is time consuming and limited to ad-hoc analysis. The Nhumi web site takes this complex issue away by allowing the various data formats and values to rationally combine into information for patients and doctors. This adds transparency and a direct access to all the data, which allows the patients and clinicians to better interpret the conclusions of safety studies and to put them into context. “We have spent most of our research effort designing a data import and management system, that is flexible enough to tackle most scenarios. The system we have built makes it possible to import and connect complex information into a simple repository that can be used for several purposes such as exploring drug safety”, says Ulf Holm Nielsen, CTO of Nhumi.

Example of safety information mapped on the human body to indicate the main anatomical parts that are suspected to be affected by the drug. The body can be rotated and zoomed in/out. The body map changes if the anatomy is classified according to its systems (nervous, vascular, etc.) or its region (head, foot, hand, etc.). The right hand side shows the list of anatomical structures that are more affected by Aspirin than by other drugs. The counts represent the number of adverse events reported to the FDA and related to the anatomical structure for Aspirin or for the other drugs. The user can click on a row to see the adverse events related to the body part.