How to Improve Medical Literature Review with Technology

Monitoring and reviewing medical literature at a local level has always posed significant challenges.
Frequent regulatory changes, the growing number of multilingual sources, and the existing workload on local affiliate offices make establishing and maintaining a local medical literature monitoring process a complex task.

Could technology be the key to expediting the medical literature review process?

How Technology Enhances the Process

With advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and an increased focus on leveraging technology to reduce manual tasks, innovative solutions have emerged to support local literature review.

Technology solutions can gather data from multiple digital sources, including websites, journals, and other publications.
Printed materials can also be digitized through scanning and integrated with digital sources to create a comprehensive dataset.
AI tools then analyze and search this dataset to identify articles relevant to predefined keywords and monitoring requirements.

Relevant materials are securely delivered through auditable systems for final review and approval. This process allows human reviewers to focus solely on pertinent articles, enabling quicker and more accurate decisions.

To make this process seamless, consider the following three steps:

1. Collaborate with Local Affiliates

Markets regulated by agencies like the FDA and EMA provide guidelines and support, such as the EMA’s medical literature monitoring process.

However, understanding the unique processes of each local affiliate team is crucial for creating an effective solution.

• Some markets may require access to region-specific literature with unique permissions.
• Language barriers could pose additional challenges.
• Reporting requirements may vary significantly between countries.

By replicating their existing processes through technology, the goal is to streamline the workflow while maintaining transparency and control for local teams.

2. Optimize Search Strategies

Getting your search strings right is fundamental for accurate monitoring.

If you already have effective English search strings, evaluate how often they are updated.
During translation, remember that a one-to-one translation of keywords may not always be effective. Certain languages may require additional terms to maximize results.

When developing your search strategy:

• Identify all critical keywords, their possible variations, and common misspellings or acronyms.
• Group terms under specific subject areas for better organization.
• Use proximity searching to locate terms appearing near each other in sentences.

Each database has its own search rules, so tailor your strategy accordingly. Boolean logic operators like OR, AND, and NOT are helpful:

• OR captures articles with any of the listed terms.
• AND ensures all listed terms appear in an article.
• NOT excludes unwanted terms.

Investing time in refining your search strategy will yield better results.

3. Consolidate Information Sources

One major challenge in local literature monitoring is the sheer number of sources that need attention. Some markets may have 10 sources, while others might require monitoring of 50 or more.

To streamline this process:

• Map out all information sources, identifying monitoring requirements, paywalls, and publication frequencies.
• Once this step is complete, explore automation tools to simplify the process.

Technology-Driven Efficiency

AI-enabled solutions for local literature monitoring can significantly reduce the workload of pharmacovigilance teams. At the same time, these solutions provide improved oversight, analytics, and faster decision-making capabilities.

Interested in optimizing your medical literature review process?
Contact us today to learn more about our technology-driven local literature monitoring solutions and how we can help streamline your operations.

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