Information technologies for clinical toxicology in Russia.

OBJECTIVE

To describe Poison Information in Russia.

RESULTS

The Moscow Toxicology Information and Advisory Center was created in 1993 as an institution of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health and Medical Industry. The Toxicology Information and Advisory Center is the first in a network of over 20 toxicology information centers to be created in different regions of Russia by 1998. At present the Toxicology Information and Advisory Center serves over 20 million people in the Moscow region with episodic inquiries from other areas. A prototype national bank of clinical and toxicological data on acute chemical poisoning and an information retrieval system POISON have been created. Work is underway to create computerized systems for data analysis of telephone inquiries on diagnosis and treatment protocols of acute poisoning.