Current Comments@ Isi's Medical Documentation Service (mds)-=- Monitoring the L~terature for the Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Industries Number 25

This article discusses tbe Medical Documentation Service’” (MDS) of the Institute for Scientific Information@ and the information services it provides m assist biomedical and pharmaceutical companies in managing and controlling publisbed product literature. MDS works individtmfly with each client to establish criteria for regularly updating in-house databases and other product literature files in support of pnstmarketing surveillance, market intelligence, and related activities. The services offered include scanning, indexing, abstracting, document delivery, and tmnslatin8 The Medical Documentation Servicew (MDSW) provides information services to assist biomedical and pharmaceutical companies in managing and controlling published product literature, MDS was established at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1953. It was acquired by the Institute for Scientific Information@ (ISI@)in late 1989 to complement and to enhance 1S1’slong-standing services in support of pharmaceutical research. ) The composition of MDS’S services has not changed since the relocation to 1S1; however, the resources to provide these services have expanded through access to 1S1’svast journal collection and advanced computer technology. The services provided by MDS have been shaped by the critical need of pharmaceutical companies to track information on their marketed products in the scientific literature. Many pharmaceutical companies have