How do pharmaceutical companies ensure that reusable content remains consistent and up-to-date?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Pharmaceutical companies employ various strategies to ensure that reusable content remains consistent and up-to-date within the context of DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) XML.

Content Profiling

Content profiling, as previously discussed, is a fundamental strategy. It involves the meticulous tagging of content components with metadata, allowing for precise categorization and retrieval. These metadata tags can include information about therapeutic areas, drug classes, regulatory requirements, and more. By maintaining accurate and comprehensive profiles, pharmaceutical organizations can easily identify and update content components that need attention.

Version Control

Version control mechanisms are crucial for maintaining content consistency. Pharmaceutical companies use versioning attributes within DITA topics to track changes and updates. Each content component is associated with a version number and a last modified date, enabling content creators to monitor revisions. Additionally, change logs and revision history records are kept to ensure that any modifications made to reusable content are well-documented and can be rolled back if necessary.

Automated Validation

Automation also plays a significant role in content consistency and updates. Automated validation scripts can be set up to check content against predefined standards. For instance, these scripts can verify that content complies with regulatory guidelines, ensuring that it remains in compliance. Automated checks can also identify broken links, outdated references, or inconsistencies within the content. When issues are detected, alerts are generated, prompting content creators to review and update the affected components.

Example:

Here’s an example of how version control and automated checks are implemented in DITA:


<topic id="drug_interactions" version="2.0" last-modified="2023-11-10">
  <title>Drug Interactions</title>
  <body>
    <p>Information about drug interactions.</p>
  </body>
  <alerts>
    <check type="regulatory-compliance" />
    <check type="broken-links" />
  </alerts>

In this example, a DITA topic includes version and last modified date attributes. Additionally, it has automated checks for regulatory compliance and broken links. These checks help ensure that the content remains consistent and up-to-date with regulatory requirements and functional integrity.