Drug Safety Matters  By  cover art

Drug Safety Matters

By: Uppsala Monitoring Centre
  • Summary

  • Drug Safety Matters brings you the best stories from the world of pharmacovigilance. Through in-depth interviews with our guests, we cover new research and trends, and explore the most pressing issues in medicines safety today. Produced by Uppsala Monitoring Centre, the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring.

    © 2024 Drug Safety Matters
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Episodes
  • #28 Catching black swans – François Montastruc
    Feb 29 2024

    Serious and unexpected adverse drug reactions – the ‘black swans’ of pharmacovigilance – can place enormous strain on safety monitoring systems. Drawing examples from the COVID-19 pandemic, François Montastruc from Toulouse University Hospital explains how we can get better at dealing with the unpredictable.

    Tune in to find out:

    • What Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ‘black swan’ theory has to do with pharmacovigilance
    • What makes an adverse drug reaction a black, white, or grey swan
    • Why flexibility and communication are key to patient safety

    Want to know more?

    Here are the research articles cited in the episode:

    • Quality of reporting of adverse events in clinical trials of COVID-19 drugs: systematic review
    • Psychiatric disorders and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: a VigiBase study
    • Hepatic disorders with the use of remdesivir for COVID-19
    • Serious bradycardia and remdesivir for COVID-19: a new safety concern
    • Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine-induced cerebral venous thrombosis and thrombocytopaenia: a missed opportunity for a rapid return of experience
    • Atypical thrombosis associated with VaxZevria® (AstraZeneca) vaccine: data from the French network of regional pharmacovigilance centres
    • Teaching pharmacovigilance to French medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic: interest of distance learning clinical reasoning sessions

    If you enjoyed this podcast, check out these related episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

    • Reforming pharmacovigilance education
    • Lessons in pandemic pharmacovigilance
    • Intuition in pharmacovigilance

    Join the conversation on social media
    Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

    Got a story to share?
    We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

    About UMC
    Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

    Show more Show less
    27 mins
  • #27 When drugs damage the liver – Rita Baião
    Feb 1 2024

    The liver is the primary site for drug metabolism in the body, but it can be severely damaged by medicines or their toxic compounds. Rita Baião from the North Lisbon University Hospital Center reviews what pharmacovigilance professionals should know about drug-induced liver injury (DILI).

    Tune in to find out:

    • Who is most at risk of developing DILI
    • How to diagnose the condition and control the damage
    • How to assess case reports of DILI

    Want to know more?

    • This infographic in Nature Reviews nicely summarises the mechanisms, diagnosis, and management of drug-induced liver injury.
    • In this report, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences provides a global perspective on DILI detection, susceptibility factors, outcomes, and more.
    • In this Drug Safety article, industry representatives outline how to identify, mitigate, and communicate the risk of DILI during drug development. 
    • The PRO-EURO DILI NETWORK coordinates research efforts on DILI across Europe and provides a forum to exchange knowledge and training on the topic. Similar initiatives include the Spanish DILI Registry and the Latin American DILI Network.
    • The free online tool LiverTox contains up-to-date information on drug-induced liver injury for medicines and herbal products.

    To learn more about post-marketing surveillance and clinical care of DILI, check out Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s free online course on the topic.

    For more on the clustering algorithm vigiGroup, revisit this interview with UMC scientists Jim Barrett and Joe Mitchell.

    Join the conversation on social media
    Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

    Got a story to share?
    We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

    About UMC
    Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

    Show more Show less
    29 mins
  • #26 What's trending in pharmacovigilance? – Angela Caro
    Dec 20 2023

    What did the drug safety community achieve in 2023 and how will the field develop in 2024? As the year comes to a close, we asked Angela Caro, president of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP), to walk us through current and future trends in pharmacovigilance.

    Tune in to find out:

    • Why patient engagement is a growing priority
    • What challenges exist in the Latin American region
    • Which topics will be in the spotlight next year

    Want to know more?

    ISoP is a non-profit society open to anyone with an interest in pharmacovigilance.

    Through 14 chapters and 13 special interest groups, the society works to enhance the safe and proper use of medicines across countries.

    Their latest annual meeting took place in Bali, Indonesia in November 2023, while the next one will take place in Montreal, Canada in October 2024.
     
    To learn more about ISoP’s activities in patient engagement and pharmacogenomics, listen to these episodes from the Drug Safety Matters archive:

    • Empowering patients as partners
    • Tailoring drug therapy to your genes

    Join the conversation on social media
    Follow us on X, LinkedIn, or Facebook and share your thoughts about the show with the hashtag #DrugSafetyMatters.

    Got a story to share?
    We’re always looking for new content and interesting people to interview. If you have a great idea for a show, get in touch!

    About UMC
    Read more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre and how we work to advance medicines safety.

    Show more Show less
    28 mins

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