The ARAMIS (American Rheumatism Association Medical Information System) Post-Marketing Surveillance Program

Abstract

ARAMIS, the national arthritis data resource, tracks 22,000 patients from 17 centers by prospective protocol, recording all routine clinical data and with regular assessment of patient status including mortality, disability, discomfort, drug side effects, and economic impact. In the ARAMIS post-marketing surveillance program, these data are used to answer questions of (a) comparative toxicity between drugs, (b) long-term drug effects, (c) effects of drug combinations upon toxicity, (d) effects of comorbidity, (e) generalizability of pre-marketing estimates, and (f) clinical characteristics of those with side reactions. Differences found in specific toxicity, both clinical and laboratory, between different drugs and with drug combinations are important, and these differences had not been discoverable from pre-marketing studies.