ISL Consulting, Art Technology Group and Interwoven team to create drug information portal



The site, DRUGFACTS.com (drugfacts.com), allows pharmacists, physicians, nurses and other drug information professionals access to the knowledge and resources gathered by Facts and Comparisons. The Web site also provides consumers with access to the same drug information as their healthcare practitioner.

We knew it was a logical extension of our business to bring our vast collection of information to the Web, but we wanted to do more than simply move our print publications online. said Steve Hebel, President and CEO of Facts and Comparisons.

ISL worked in partnership with Facts and Comparisons and its corporate parent, Wolters Kluwer International Health and Science, to perform a strategic assessment to determine the viability of developing a pharmacy portal. The assessment included interviews with pharmacists and drug information experts to determine the most suitable online features to meet their needs.

The site design relies on a large amount of dynamic, complex content, interactive tools and in-depth customization options for different users, said Kevin Thomas, President of ISL. To manage all of these components, DRUGFACTS.com required a flexible Java platform that supports personalization and software that facilitates the translation of published content into digital form.

DRUGFACTS.com relies on the ATG Dynamo e-business platform, a J2EE-certified e-business platform and 100 percent Java-based customer management application, to drive the site's functionality.

ATG's priority is to provide fully integrated solutions that enable businesses like Facts and Comparisons to improve their e-business efforts by personalizing the online customer experience from customer acquisition and behaviour to retention and loyalty, said Mark Walls, Director Partners Program and Strategic Alliances, ATG.

DRUGFACTS.com also offers a number of additional features, including a search engine from Verity, that enables users to find the information they need while still meeting the technical search requirements pharmacists demand in finding precise data quickly. The search engine also offers a link to related information, or deeper knowledge, about any drug that a user wishes to investigate, performing behind-the-scenes searches that speed user access to relevant information.