For patients, carers and the public
Make sense of the questions you have about medicines.
Perhaps you have read a leaflet, heard about a study or left an appointment with another question. Biomedical Guru helps you explore the information behind that question and return to the sources yourself.
Your question
Start with what you want to understand
Medicine questions rarely arrive in textbook language. They begin with a new symptom, a worry after reading the leaflet or a conversation that ended before you had asked everything.
Ask in your own words
Start with what you want to understand. You can add non-identifying context and follow up as the conversation develops.
Confirm the medicine first
A familiar name can cover more than one product or formulation. If there is more than one possible match, you will be asked which one you mean before the evidence is searched. Your choice is recorded with the question.
Your answer
Read the answer. Open the evidence.
Explore the references attached to the answer and see what the retrieved material says.
The relevant product
The search begins with the product or formulation you confirmed, so the answer is tied to the medicine you asked about.
The findings
The answer brings together the relevant product wording and published evidence. It also sets out more than one interpretation when the evidence supports more than one.
The records behind it
Open the citations to see what was retrieved. You can read the source record behind a statement and take it into a conversation with a clinician.
Where the evidence comes from
One question can need several kinds of source
The official product information tells you how a medicine is authorised for use. Published research records what was examined and what came out of it. Trial and adverse-event records add different parts of the picture.
- Medicine informationUK Summary of Product Characteristics from the eMC register and US FDA product labelling through openFDA.
- Published researchPublication records, abstracts and citation links returned for your question.
- Trials and safety reportsClinicalTrials.gov and the openFDA adverse-event reporting database.
- Specialist UK registersThe HSE biocide register and the VMD veterinary product register where the question calls for them.
Different sources answer different parts of a medicine question. Read each source in the context of the question it addresses.
Reading the whole picture
Some questions end with a clear finding. Some stay open.
A study can tell you who took part and what happened during its follow-up. It may leave your exact circumstances unanswered. An adverse-event report can show that something was reported after a medicine was taken, but the report alone cannot establish that the medicine caused it.
That is why the answer may give you several reasonable readings of the evidence. You can see what supports each reading and what the published picture has not settled.
Biomedical Guru provides information. Discuss treatment decisions with a qualified healthcare professional. If the question is urgent, seek medical help through the appropriate service.
A useful answer gives you the evidence and the questions that still need clinical judgement. For your next conversation with a clinician
Begin with your medicine
Ask the question in your own words.
See what the product information and published evidence say about it.