Working process

Janusmed Sex and Gender is a knowledge bank providing structured evidence-based information on sex and gender aspects of drug treatment. The information is intended for healthcare professionals. The text documents are based on substance names (generic names), and linked to available drug products on the Swedish market, to enable searches on both substance names and product names. The purpose is to provide support for improved drug therapy by facilitating the right choice of drug and the right dosage, related to the patient’s sex.

Please note that Janusmed Sex and Gender do not include information about the drug’s potential birth defects or compatibility with breastfeeding. For such information, please consult the services Janusmed Drugs and Birth Defects (in Swedish, Janusmed fosterpåverkan) and Janusmed Breastfeeding (in Swedish, Janusmed amning).

Authors

The text documents in Janusmed Sex and Gender are written by pharmacists at the Health and Medical Care Administration Stockholm, or physicians at Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital.

Review and approval

All text documents are reviewed and discussed at a round with authors and responsible clinical pharmacologist, Doctor Diana Rydberg. The texts are approved by Professor Karin Schenck-Gustafsson at the Centre for Gender Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. If necessary, the text documents is reviewed by clinical experts from the Stockholm Drug and Therapeutic Committee’s expert groups. In some cases, the Swedish Medical Products Agency or U.S. Food and Drug Administration are consulted.

Facts compilation

The writing process begins with a literature search, which includes following sources: medical databases (e.g. PubMed), product information, treatment guidelines, medical and pharmacological text books. The literature search follows a template (SOP) and a checklist Pdf, 145.8 kB. to ensure that the authors follow the same systematic process and have enough information to write about substances that not yet have been included in the knowledge base, and to update existing text documents.

The texts only include studies on humansd and studies including individuals with the biological sexes man and woman (or boy and girl) because there is insufficient evidence to analyze non-binary gender identities. Sex and gender differences described in our text documents are statistical significant differences, unless something else is specificed. The texts primarily contain information on biological sex aspects regarding pharmacokinetics, effects and adverse effects, but also to some extent gender aspects such as disease prevalence, medication use and adverse event reporting.

Sender and responsibilities

This knowledge bank is primarily intended for healthcare professionals. The texts are general and should not be seen as treatment guidelines. It is always the treating physician that is responsible for the patient’s medication.

For the medical content of this knowledge bank, the responsible lay on Professor Karin Schenck-Gustafsson, Centre for Gender Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and Doctor Diana Rydberg, Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital. Region Stockholm is responsible for technical solution, linkage to the product assortment, presentation and distribution.

Comments are appreciated: e-tjanster.hsf@regionstockholm.se