Abu Dhabi, 18th Aug. 2011 (WAM): To monitor the Adverse Reactions to medicines and to minimize the occurrence of Medication Errors, the Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HAAD), the regulatory body for the health care sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, organized a Pharmacovigilance workshop aimed at 50 medical centre and clinic representatives in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
The Pharmacovigilance program is to help the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug related problems.
An Adverse Reaction (AR) is a harmful or an unintended response to drugs, where as a Medication Error (ME) is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use, while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. It can be either due to a human or system error. According to HAAD, the Pharmacovigilance Program aims to improve patient care and safety in relation to the use of medicines and to help in the risk benefit assessment of medicines, encouraging safe, rational and more effective use. In addition it promotes better understanding, education and provides for clinical training in the area of drug use. Through proper training and clear guidance, HAAD aims to minimise the human errors. The system errors however may be due to any malfunctioning in the electronic programs/systems used for prescribing or dispensing medicines. According to HAAD statistics for the year 2010, the total reports received from the program reached to 1380 reports out of which 825 report were on Adverse Reactions to medicines and 555 reports on Medication Errors.Adverse Reaction reports provide HAAD with the first alert of a problem with a drug. Even though it cannot be regarded as definitive, it indicates the need for further enquiry or action. However, several regulatory interventions are instituted by HAAD further to the analysis of these reports by PV centre:Issuing a safety alert to all health care professionals regarding the use of the particular pharmaceutical product.
Withdrawal /recall of the drug from the Abu Dhabi market place (in coordination with MOH and National PV committee) in case of serious incidence involving product quality/safetyAdding a new side effect to the product leaflet (in coordination with MOH) or issuing a regulatory circular restricting the use of the product by Healthcare Professionals. In some cases, changing the labels or packaging of a product that may look similar to an existing product (package) in the market which cause confusion and contribute to Medication Errors while dispensing.. As for the reported Medication Errors, HAAD has assigned a team to investigate and propose remedial measures to prevent the occurrence of similar incidents in other health facilities. Analysis of the reports showed that Adverse Reaction were most common with the use of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs. Commenting on the scope of the program and its outreach, Dr. Mohammed Abu Elkhair said: "The program will additionally cover all medical centres and clinics (542 facilities) in 2011. Subsequently the program will be expanded to community pharmacies and will finally be integrated to include a voluntary public reporting program (on any side effects) to HAAD."The program protects the confidentiality of the patient and the reporter to the fullest extent of the law and no such information is used in anyway against them. HAAD has recently developed the Adverse Reaction and Medication Errror reporting forms in PDF fillable format to facilitate electronic reporting by all healthcare professionals and to better coordinate collection of essential safety information of all medicinal products marketed in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2011.
