Database usage was evaluated regarding the retrieval of drug-induced adverse effect case reports. A search of case reports was performed using the on-line Medline (Ovid). Forty case reports were extracted from “Reactions” (adis INTERNATIONAL) used as secondary literature on adverse effects. From the original titles and abstracts, the name of the drugs and adverse effects were translated into Japanease and used to search data sets. After 6 pharmacists received a 30-minute explanation on how to use Medline since they had no previous experience in using Medline at the time of this study, the accessibility to the original case reports was examined and evaluated for their hitting rates. The hitting rates of the original data were 40-75%, and the data was divided into high-rate and low-rate groups. A major cause of a low hitting rate was that the “explode” function was not utilized to extend the terms of adverse effects. As a result, the “explode” function was found to be an important factor in effectively using Medline, especially when terms are not adequately chosen to retrieve case reports on adverse effects.
