2003 Volume 2 Issue 3 Pages 71-78
Congenital malformations or birth defects are a major public concern. However, lack of proper information may panic a pregnant woman who had taken medicines without noticing the pregnancy, and thus may result in an unnecessary abortion. We have undertaken a new research/development project to create an information-community for teratogenic agents, consisting of pregnant women, pharmacists, physicians and research scientists working on medicinal products. We have designed a trial database system for teratogenic agents. The database performs not only retrieval of teratogenic information and chemical structures of drugs/medicinal products, but also registration of clinical case reports and teratogenic information on various chemicals. Our system will be useful for clinical risk-assessment of teratogenic exposures in pregnant women and for the development of new drugs based on chemical information and computer science.
