Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I would love to get your book on CD-ROM. Do you have any plans for releasing it in electronic form?

A: The first electronic edition of our outstanding reference was released in December 2006, simultaneously with the 2007 edition of the printed book. You can order the current edition in book or CD format, or as book+CD package at a special price. See the full information on our order page.

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Q: When I click the “Updates” tab, the login form is gone. What’s up with that?

A: Our original vision was to provide free Web updates to an electronic version of our book. The idea was to allow transcriptionists to use their own computer to search our massive drug database, which we would provide annually on a CD-ROM. The Web updates would be downloaded and incorporated into each user’s database each month, so that all searches would include the very latest drugs. We first made this proposal to the publisher in 1995 and renewed it several times, but no electronic version was forthcoming. Therefore, in 2001 we began posting free monthly updates on our own personal “Authors’ Web Site.”

In late 2005 the publisher finally agreed to publish our drug reference on CD-ROM. We spent most of 2006 designing and tweaking the search and display routines, and the new CD version was finally released in December 2006. This product fulfills our original vision of an electronically updatable product, so we have stopped updating the paper version.

We understand that some people are more comfortable using a book instead of a CD, but scanning through a stack of monthly updates before flipping through the pages of a book is inefficient, to say the least. In earlier times some people preferred handwriting to using a typewriter, then preferred the simplicity of a typewriter over a the complexity of a computer-based word processor. We haven’t heard of anyone typing medical reports on a typewriter lately, much less writing out doctors’ dictation by hand, so we feel confident that transcriptionists can make the transition from paper-based references to electronic references with a minimum of stress.

For those who prefer a book-in-hand, we will continue to publish our widely acclaimed reference book, but its update schedule will now match that of our competitors’ ink-on-paper products, which is to say, once a year.

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Q: Where are the previous Web updates?

A: All updates to previous editions that previously appeared on this Web site have been incorporated into the current edition.

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Q: When are the monthly electronic updates available?

A: We receive information from multiple sources throughout the month. Updates from various pharmacist information services tend to cluster around the first half of the month, however, so our goal is to post updates around the 20th of each month.

Each time you start the program, your computer will connect to the update server to check for new updates. When new updates are available, an alert will appear and you will be given the option to install those updates into the database on your computer. Keeping up-to-date is as simple as clicking “Install Updates” when the alert appears.

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Q: Why have I not received a reply to my e-mail?

A: It could be one of several reasons. We try to answer incoming e-mails quickly, but there are times (such as when we’re traveling or when we’re in the throes of the next edition’s deadlines) that our e-mail responses fall behind. During the hard disk crash of 2002, we worked literally day and night to recover the database so the 2003 edition would publish on time, and our incoming e-mail went without a reply for several months. We don’t have a “staff” of people to produce our books. Every word in every book, every word on this Web site, and every word in every e-mail reply is personally written by either Ellen or Randy.

Another possible reason may be that the subject line of your e-mail hit our spam filters. We’re getting over 500 spam e-mails per week. Therefore, we’ve set spam filters to delete e-mails with blank subject lines, irrelevant subject lines (like “Hi”), subject lines that show that we’ve been included on an e-mail broadacast list (e,g., containing FW: or FWD:), or subject lines that start with “RE:” (indicating a reply to our e-mail) followed by a subject that we didn’t initiate. To make sure your e-mail gets through, please put a relevant topic on the subject line, such as “Question about Cardiotec” or “How do I order the next edition?” or “Where is the dedication?”

And finally, if you haven’t received a reply in a week or two, please resend your e-mail. It may have “slipped through the cracks.” A gentle hint would not be out of line, again on the subject line, such as“Question about Cardiotec (second request).”

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Q: Will the edition — plus all of the CD updates through next December — have the same content as the book and CD?

A: Not exactly. Due to production time constraints, our annual drug reference (book and CD) “closes” in October. Both the print and electronic versions of the 2009 edition will include all updates to our database through October 2008.

The edition of our book is current through October and will not be updated until the edition is released next December.

New and updated drug information that becomes available through December will be in corporated into your CD, then updating of the CD will cease. To continue receiving monthly updates, you’ll need to purchase the edition of the CD, which will be updated monthly through December .

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Q: Your home page says that this is the “authors’ web site.” How is that different from the publisher’s web site?

A: You should understand the difference between authors and publishers. Authors write manuscripts. Publishers take the author’s manuscript and turn it into a finished book. The publisher also markets the book and fills orders. Authors are paid royalties by the publisher based on the number of books sold. We, the authors, are almost* entirely responsible for the book’s content, but we cannot sell books. That’s why our order page has links to the publisher’s web site.

*Actually, we were entirely responsible for the book’s content until 2004, the year the Saunders imprint was sold to Elsevier. The new owners insisted that our book must be “politically correct,” so they overruled the contents of the Preface (which used to contain timely information about the state of the pharmaceutical industry) and removed our Authors’ Dedication page, which was our annual proclaimation of the book’s dedication to the Lord Jesus. Actually, our books are still dedicated to the Lord Jesus, and each year we include a dedication page “To the Lord Jesus” in the layout we send to Elsevier. And each year since 2004 they have removed our dedication page before sending it to press. Read the whole story.

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