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Ben Woods
Europe EditorBen is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional Ben is a technology journalist with a specialism in mobile devices and a geeky love of mobile spectrum issues. Ben used to be a professional online poker player. You can contact him via Twitter or on Google+.
Iodine, a platform for finding out which drugs really work best for users, has launched in the US in a bid to bring more transparency to consumer choices in the pharmaceutical industry.
The company was founded in July last year and has since then been working on increasing its database of drug knowledge ahead of its public launch. Today, it has results from more than 100,000 surveys (carried out in the US using Google Consumer Surveys) to help users better understand the real life experiences of people who have used the drugs.
The platform also looks at other factors, like price, side-effects and potential trade-offs between choosing one drug over another. So, for example, if you want to know the potential benefits and drawbacks between using Omeprazole instead of other acid indigestion medicine, you can find out in one easy glance, or if you want to find out what percentage of people find Advil effective, you can do that too.
Benefits of a deeper understanding of medicines for consumers are obvious – the better informed people are, the more they can take responsibility for management of ongoing conditions or one-off problems. Nonetheless, if in doubt, it’s probably still best to check with your doctor, albeit armed with a little more knowledge than before.
➤ Welcome to Iodine [Iodine]
Image credit: Shutterstock
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