Scientific Research - Vancouver, BC, US
The Therapeutics Initiative (TI) was established in 1994 by the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in cooperation with the Department of Family Practice at The University of British Columbia with its mission to provide physicians and pharmacists with up-to-date, evidence-based, practical information on prescription drug therapy. To reduce bias as much as possible the TI is an independent organization, separate from government, pharmaceutical industry and other vested interest groups. We strongly believe in the need for independent assessments of evidence on drug therapy to balance the drug industry sponsored information sources. Over the years the TI has substantially enhanced its ability to assess the clinical evidence presented in published articles, meta-analyses by the Cochrane Collaboration and scientific material presented by the pharmaceutical industry. In pace with the extensive assessment of clinical evidence, the TI has developed effective ways of knowledge translation and dissemination of this evidence to all active players involved in drug therapy: physicians, pharmacists, nurses and policy-makers (Ministry of Health) and is committed to analyzing its own impact.