Patient participation valuable for surveillance of drug safety

Patient participation adds great value to the surveillance of drug safety (pharmacovigilance). Leàn Rolfes concludes in her dissertation that patient reports contribute to the timely detection of new adverse drug reactions. The quality of information reported by patients is comparable to that of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, patients provide information about the impact of adverse drug reactions on their daily life. For an optimal surveillance of drug safety, both healthcare professionals and patients should be encouraged to report adverse drug reactions.

Patients and healthcare professionals can report adverse drug reactions that they notice in daily practice to a pharmacovigilance centre. In the Netherlands this is the Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb. All reports are analyzed by the pharmacovigilance centre. This leads to new knowledge about adverse drug reactions. Knowledge that is crucial for healthcare professionals and patients regarding their choice for drug use, and to prevent and timely recognize adverse drug reactions.

The dissertation of Leàn Rolfes explores the impact of patient participation on pharmacovigilance. Patients are the ones who experience adverse drug reactions. Therefore they can provide first-hand information. However, patient participation in pharmacovigilance has not always been common. From the beginning of the 21st century more countries started to accept reports directly from patients. This dissertation focusses on the type and quality of information reported by patients. In addition, it discusses the contribution of patient reports to the timely detection of drug safety risks. The way pharmacovigilance centres can provide information to patients in response to a reported adverse drug reaction is also discussed.

Leàn Rolfes performed her studies at the Netherlands Pharmacovigilance Centre Lareb, combined with a position as a part-time external PhD-student at the Groningen Institute of Pharmacy (GRIP) of the University of Groningen.

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