Questions: Questions and answers about Wardside
Wardside is the evidence-based clinical assistant for European hospitals, pharmacy chains, medical universities, pharmaceutical companies and professional societies. Here are the answers to the questions we hear most often.
What is Wardside?
Wardside is the evidence-based clinical assistant for European healthcare institutions: an AI assistant for doctors, pharmacists and nurses. It answers clinical questions from official sources: European and international clinical guidelines, summaries of product characteristics (SmPCs) from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and national regulators, national medicine registers, drug interactions and calculators. Every statement links to the exact section of its source.
Who is Wardside for?
For hospitals, pharmacy chains, medical universities, pharmaceutical companies and professional societies. Within them, Wardside is used by doctors, pharmacists and nurses. Students and industry staff are separate user types.
What does the platform include?
Five modules. “Ask” answers a clinical question with a citation. “Medicines” is the register, with product pages and digitised SmPCs. “Interactions” checks up to 20 medicines at once. “Tools” brings together 89 clinical calculators and scores. “Guidelines” is the library of clinical guidelines, standards and regulations.
Does Wardside use artificial intelligence, and how is the answer checked?
Yes. The text of an answer in “Ask” is composed by a language model, but every sentence in it must carry a citation or it is not shown. Citations from the safety sections of the SmPC (sections 4.3 to 4.6) are checked verbatim against the text of the source. A sentence that cannot be confirmed is dropped, and if nothing confirmed remains, Wardside declines to answer. Prices, reimbursement, interaction severities and the doses in SmPC tables are read directly from the database, not from the model.
Is Wardside a clinical decision support system?
No. Wardside is not a clinical decision support system and is not a medical device within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/745. It shows what the sources state and does not recommend treatment. Every answer in the chat ends with the line “Not a treatment recommendation.”
Which countries are covered?
European and international guidelines, EMA information, interactions, calculators and safety data are not tied to one country. National sources (medicine registers, prices and reimbursement, national legislation) are connected country by country; the first country connected is Bulgaria.
Where do the data come from?
The registers are national medicine registers, with the national price files and shortage and export-ban lists, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA). More than 7,600 SmPCs come from the EMA and national regulators. Interactions come from a curated database, with sources such as ANSM and Cerner Multum. Pregnancy follows the TGA, antibiotics the WHO AWaRe 2025 classification, and renal dosing the Renal Drug Handbook.
How can you tell how current the data are?
Every product page shows three dates: the last check of the registers, the last change in the register and the date of the SmPC. Changes to the SmPC over the last 12 months are listed by section.
Which clinical guidelines are included?
Wardside holds 164 guidelines, standards and regulations in 18 areas: European and international guidelines (ESC, ESMO, EASL, EAU, ESGE, KDIGO, GOLD, GINA, ADA, IDSA, BNF for Children and others), national pharmacotherapeutic standards, consensus statements of professional societies and national legislation. An answer cites the document and the page.
Does Wardside show whether a medicine is reimbursed?
Yes, for the countries whose national sources are connected. The product page shows whether the national payer reimburses the pack, what share of the price it covers and for which ICD-10 codes. Prices per pack come from the national price files. In the chat, prices and reimbursement sit in a separate card, read directly from the register.
How does Wardside check citations?
Every sentence in the answer carries a citation, and text without a citation is not shown. Citations from the safety sections of the SmPC (sections 4.3 to 4.6) are checked verbatim against the text of the source. A sentence that cannot be confirmed is dropped. If nothing confirmed remains, Wardside does not answer.
What happens if there is no source?
Wardside says that it found no material and does not answer. If a source fails to load, the screen says that too. A loading error never looks like “no data”.
Can the model get a price or a dose wrong?
The numbers do not pass through the model. Prices, reimbursement, interaction severities and the doses in SmPC tables are read directly from the database and shown in separate cards. The model writes only the text beneath them, with citations.
Where are the data stored?
In the European Union. The application and the databases are in Belgium (europe-west1).
Do we need to enter patient data?
No. Wardside holds no patient records and stores nothing clinical about a specific person. If a question contains a name, a national identification number or a phone number, these are masked before the question reaches the model, the search and the audit log. The calculators do not store the values entered.
Who sees the questions staff ask?
The organisation’s audit log is available only to its administrator and its pharmacist. Wardside’s operator sees only metadata, without the content of the questions.
Are the answers kept?
Yes. Every chat turn is written to an audit log: the question after masking, the sources and the answer. This lets the institution trace how the AI assistant has been used. Interaction checks are recorded too.
Can an individual doctor use Wardside?
Wardside is offered to institutions. Doctors, pharmacists and students get access through their organisation.
How do staff log in?
With their work account: through single sign-on (SSO) or by work email domain, with automatic approval or approval by the administrator. The administrator can also invite people by email; an invitation is valid for 30 days. There is no registration without an invitation or a work domain. When an account is not approved automatically, the professional registration number is checked against the national professional register.
Can we upload our formulary?
Yes, as CSV or XLSX. Each row is matched to the register only on an exact match, and uncertain rows go for review. Twenty-four versions are kept. Products on the list are marked in the register and on the product pages.
Can internal protocols be cited?
Yes. Your organisation’s documents are visible only to its members, and “Ask” cites them alongside the SmPCs.
How much does Wardside cost?
Terms depend on the institution and on what it needs. We agree them after the demo, in which we show you the platform with questions from your own practice.
Does Wardside work on a phone?
Yes. Wardside is a web application and runs in the browser, on the computer in the consulting room and on a phone.
Where can I find the summary of product characteristics (SmPC) for a medicine?
In the “Medicines” module. You search by name, active substance or indication and open the product page. There you will find the SmPC, divided into its 25 sections, with a link to the original PDF at the EMA or the national regulator. Wardside holds more than 7,600 SmPCs. When an answer in “Ask” cites an SmPC, the citation opens the section the text was taken from.
How do you check drug interactions in Wardside?
In the “Interactions” module you enter active substances or brand-name products. Wardside checks every pair in a curated database, with sources such as ANSM and Cerner Multum, and shows the severity, the effect and the mechanism. When the sources differ, the more severe grade is kept. Wardside does not assign a severity of its own. The same check is built into the product page and the active substance page.
How does Wardside show dose adjustment in renal impairment?
On the active substance page, Wardside shows the verbatim entries by GFR and for renal replacement therapy from the Renal Drug Handbook (693 monographs), next to the dosing regimen from section 4.2 of the SmPC. The renal function calculators, such as Cockcroft-Gault and CKD-EPI 2021, lead from the calculated clearance to the products and their SmPCs, with section 4.3 and the renal subsection of section 4.2 verbatim and cited. Wardside does not give a dose that the source does not contain.
How many medicines can be checked at once?
Up to 20 products. A product takes one slot with all of its ingredients. There are three severity levels: major, moderate and minor clinical significance. Food and alcohol, and duplicate therapy, are shown separately.
Can we use a shared computer on the ward?
Yes. A computer on the hospital network can be used without a personal account. It has the register, interactions and calculators, but no chat and no history.
Do the calculators store the values entered?
No. The 89 calculators show their formula and source but record neither the values nor the result. Only which calculator was opened is recorded.
Didn’t find an answer? Ask us in the demo
We will show you the platform with questions from your own practice and answer everything about your institution.