TERIS- Teratogen Information System- program was developed in 1984 with a federal grant awarded to Dr. Jan M. Friedman from Maternal and Child Health (Health Resources and Services Administration, US Government). Dr. Friedman, a clinical geneticist and professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, is the founder of TERIS and remains a key member of the TERIS Advisory Board.
TERIS has grown to be an authoritative clinical resource on the fetal risks of maternal medications and other environmental exposures, such as viral infections. The database is used by health care professionals and researchers from academics and the pharmaceutical industry in the United States and abroad.
The TERIS database consists of a series of agent summaries (currently over 1,700 agents, including 200 of the most frequently prescribed drugs), each of which is based on a thorough review of the published clinical and experimental literature. Summaries may be accessed using either generic names or domestic or foreign proprietary names.
The level of authoritative guidance that TERIS provides is unique. Each agent summary includes a teratogenic risk rating that is derived by consensus from the TERIS Advisory Board. The TERIS Advisory Board is composed of nationally recognized clinical teratology experts from the fields of medicine, epidemiology and genetics.
TERIS offers yearly subscriptions for individual, non-commercial use at a reasonable price and also offers licensing for volume or commercial use. Each TERIS subscription includes access to Shepard's Catalog of Teratogenic Agents, which provides information on more than 3,500 agents.
TERIS is housed in the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington School of Public Health.