ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center
The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) has developed a sophisticated veterinary database system, AnTox™. AnTox is a comprehensive clinical animal toxicology data collection and retrieval system that helps identify and characterize toxic effects of substances in animals.
AnTox is an online, direct-entry medical records system that efficiently collects comprehensive patient data, while providing ready access to an extensive library of online diagnostic and treatment resources. Currently, the AnTox database contains more than one million animal cases involving pesticide, drug, plant, metal, and other exposures in food-producing, wildlife, zoo and companion animals.
AnTox raises the bar in veterinary toxicology because it is so comprehensive and enables us to collect more patient data than any other veterinary toxicology medical record system in the world. AnTox consists of two main databases that are highly integrated: a medical records database and a medical library database.
The medical library comprises four sections:
- Animal information
- Clinical information
- Substance information
- Therapy information
The therapy section contains protocols written by staff veterinarians that detail the most up-to-date therapy for each toxicant. The medical record system coupled with the reporting system provides comprehensive information about past case experiences and enables the APCC to act as a surveillance model for emerging problems in toxicology. For example, analysis of AnTox records was instrumental in identifying the hazards for dogs of ingesting Xylitol (.pdf) and also (.pdf).
In addition to using AnTox to respond to calls to the APCC hotline by veterinarians and pet owners, APCC staff use AnTox to provide toxicology and veterinary consulting services to industry, agriculture, and government clients.