The current state of pharmacovigilance

摘要

The World Health Organisation's 50th anniversary symposium, "The current state of pharmacovigilance: a creitical examination"was held in Stokholm, Sweden, from December 9 to 11, 1998. As well as marking 50 years of the WHO, the meeting celebrated 30 years of the WHO programme for international drug monitoring, and 20 years of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Interantional Drug Monitoring (now known as the Uppsala Monitoring Centre). Key topics covered during the symposium were the strengths and weaknesses of spontaneous reporting systems and pharmacoepidemiological approaches in monitoring drug safety, optimising benefit-risk evaluations, and effective communication in pharmacovigilance. Jo Barnes, MRPharmS, reports