Pharmacoinformatics combines bio- and chemoinformatics approaches as well as artificial intelligence to support drug design and development at various stages, starting from preclinical research support to clinical trial design and execution support (stages I, II and III), as well as pharmacovigilance, pharmacoeconomics and personalized medicine. The rational use of these methods, combined with the relevant experimental approaches, is crucial to face the new challenges in drug design and development.
In recent years, a growing number of pharmacoinformatics approaches have been developed and implemented to enhance the design and development of therapeutic alternatives for multiple pathologies. In fact, the training of professionals working in this field is getting increasingly complemented by this type of approaches.
As such, we consider it crucial to show the most relevant advances in the design, development, improvement, and implementation of approaches that face the main challenges when designing new drugs. They aim at improving pharmacokinetic and toxicological profiles, increasing selectivity and bioavailability, finding novel chemical groups with activity against key targets in complex pathologies, finding molecular descriptions of mechanisms of action, pharmaceutical monitoring and surveillance,clinical trials, personalized medicine, etc.
The scope of this research topic involves subtopics where pharmacoinformatics tools are used to enhance drug design processes such as:
- Accelerate drug discovery and development.
- Identify novel molecular targets.
- Increase the efficacy of clinical trials.
- Computer-driven polypharmacology.
- Personalize and create targeted drugs.
- Reduce cost and increase drug adherence.
- Gain improved insight into marketing and sales performance.
- Improve safety and risk management.
The main idea behind the field is to integrate different informatics branches (e.g. bioinformatics, chemoinformatics, immunoinformatics, etc.) into a single platform, resulting in a seamless process of drug discovery. The first reference of the term "Pharmacoinformatics" can be found in the year of 1993.[1]
The first dedicated department for Pharmacoinformatics was established at the National Institute Of Pharmaceutical Education And Research, S.A.S. Nagar, India in 2003.[2] This has been followed by different universities worldwide including a program by European universities named the European Pharmacoinformatics Initiative (Europin[3]).
Pharmacoinformatics is also referred to as pharmacy informatics. According to the article "Pharmacy Informatics: What You Need to Know Now" by the University of Illinois at Chicago Pharmacoinformatics may be defined as: “the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems.[4]” It is the application of computers to the storage, retrieval and analysis of drug and prescription information. Pharmacy informaticists work with pharmacy information management systems that help the pharmacist safe decisions about patient drug therapies with respect to, medical insurance records, drug interactions, as well as prescription and patient information.
Pharmacy informatics can be thought of as a sub-domain of the larger professional discipline of health informatics. Health informatics is the study of interactions between people, their work processes and engineered systems within health care with a focus on pharmaceutical care and improved patient safety. For example, the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) defines pharmacy informatics as, "the scientific field that focuses on medication-related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems - including its acquisition, storage, analysis, use and dissemination - in the delivery of optimal medication-related patient care and health outcomes.
