AERS spider: an online interactive tool to mine statistical associations in Adverse Event Reporting System.

BACKGROUND

Exploration of the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) data by a wide scientific community is limited due to several factors. First, AERS data must be intensively preprocessed to be converted into analyzable format. Second, application of the currently accepted disproportional reporting measures results in false positive signals.

METHODS

We proposed a data mining strategy to improve hypothesis generation with respect to potential associations.

RESULTS

By numerous examples, we illustrate that our strategy controls the false positive signals. We implemented a free online tool, AERS spider (www.chemoprofiling.org/AERS).

CONCLUSIONS

We believe that AERS spider would be a valuable tool for drug safety experts.