What's in it, what it does, what to watch for.
Brand or generic name, UK or US spelling, typos forgiven. Answers come from the manufacturer's official product label and the FDA's adverse-event reports, with a plain-English summary written by SAGE.
Often looked up
on this siteWhere the answers come from
The label
Every medicine sold in the United States has a structured product label filed with the FDA — the same leaflet that comes in the box, machine-readable. DOSE reads it through openFDA, choosing the most complete label for the medicine and letting you switch to another maker's.
Adverse events
The FDA's FAERS database holds every side-effect report filed since 2004. DOSE shows the reactions most often reported for a medicine — counts of reports, not rates, and not proof the medicine caused them.
UK names
Guernsey medicines follow British names; the labels use American ones. Paracetamol becomes acetaminophen, salbutamol becomes albuterol, Nurofen is ibuprofen — DOSE translates the common ones and uses RxNorm to catch misspellings.
Not advice
DOSE repeats what the label says; it doesn't know your history, your other medicines or your dose. For anything that matters, the pharmacist is free and the leaflet in the box is the version that applies to what you were given.