Manual FDA page checks
- Free
- Official
- Requires someone to remember
- Hard to track changes over time
Comparison
Alternatives to manually checking FDA drug shortage pages
Different monitoring workflows solve different problems. The key question is whether shortage tracking depends on a person remembering to check, update, and notify everyone else.
Spreadsheets
- Flexible
- Easy to start
- Often stale
- Depends on manual updates
General news alerts
- Broad
- Misses structured record changes
- No watchlist logic
Formulary Signal
- Monitors public FDA/openFDA shortage records
- Sends timestamped Signal Card alerts
- Includes public-source context where matched
- Adds RxNorm, NDC, DailyMed, and FDA RSS context where available; ASHP/UUDIS remains external link/title/date context only
- Does not provide medical/procurement advice
Watchlist alerts
- Useful when the current workflow is a person checking FDA pages
- Creates a timestamped source trail for internal review
- Does not replace official FDA verification or local availability checks