Overview
The eMC contains up to date, easily accessible information about medicines licensed for use in the UK. It contains:
- 4,800+ Summaries of Product Characteristics (SPCs) – the prescribing information for a medicine; and
- 3,800+ Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) – the leaflet that is found in the medicine pack.
The eMC is the most comprehensive online source of its type and is up to date, trustworthy and widely used.
- All the SPCs and PILs have been approved by the medicines licensing agencies – the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
- Pharmaceutical companies update the information quickly once the MHRA or EMA have approved the information.
Comprehensive
With more than 4,800 Summaries of Product Characteristics (SPCs) and 3,800 Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) , the eMC is the most comprehensive, accessible resource of its type.
It includes 98% of the top 95% of medicines dispensed. This is determined from Prescription Cost Analysis (PCA) data which is provided by the NHS’ Information Centre.
Up to date
The pharmaceutical companies’ who publish their information on the eMC website, add information about new products or update information about existing products within 10 working days of the regulatory authority approving the information.
The information used to update the resource is governed by the Good Medicines Information Charter.
Partners
We consult regularly with UK Medicines Information (UKMi), an NHS expert pharmacy service, as well as NHS Direct, which provides online and telephone health advice and information to people 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Both UKMi and NHS Direct use the eMC to answer many of the enquiries about medicines they receive from professionals and the public.
Site usage
The eMC is used predominately by healthcare professionals, and extensively within the NHS. Many of these visits are from UK Medicines Information (UKMi), an NHS expert pharmacy service, as well as NHS Direct, which provides online and telephone health advice and information to people 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Both UKMi and NHS Direct use the eMC to answer many of the enquiries about medicines they receive from professionals and the public.
The eMC is also used by medicine users, carers and the general public to access the SPCs and PILs for medicines licensed for use in the UK.
eMC Data Services
Datapharm provides information from the eMC to other organisations in formats they can use. The following is a list of some of the organisations to whom we provide extracts of our data:
Healthcare information and prescribing or dispensing systems
- Boots retail pharmacies
- DXS
- First Data Bank Europe (FDBE)
- Medhand (Dr Companion on PDA)
- Positive Solutions
NHS Hospital trusts on CD ROM
Medical search engines
- SearchMedica (www.searchmedica.com)
- Univadis (www.univadis.co.uk)
- NHS Evidence (www.evidence.nhs.uk)
If you would like to receive information from the eMC please contact us.
Funding
All the information on the eMC website comes directly from pharmaceutical companies. About 195 pharmaceutical companies subscribe to the eMC and pay Datapharm to publish their information on the eMC website. View the list of pharamaceutical companies who fund the eMC.
History
The eMC website was launched in 1999. Since then we have constantly sought feedback from our users and have made changes to make it more comprehensive and easier to find information.
- In 2009, the eMC was redesigned, improving the search capability and look and feel of the website.
- In 2010, we introduced the sub-brands eMC Medicine Guides and eMC Business Intelligence, recognising the unique information needs of our users.
