International seminar on pharmacovigilance held at Mysore

EPP News Bureau - Mumbai

L-R: Prof G Parthasarathi; Dr Y J Vishweshwara Reddy (RGUHS); Karin Nyfort Hansen (Australia); Jagadguru Sri Sri Shivarathri Desikendra Mahaswamiji (president); Sten Olsson (Sweden); Prof B G Naresh Kumar (AICTE) & Dr B G Nagavi (principal)

The JSS College of Pharmacy, Mysore, organised an international seminar on pharmacovigilance and medication safety with the theme, ‘Better patient care through safe use of medicines’.

The seminar which was organised by the College Department of Pharmacy Practice in collaboration with the Indian Pharmaceutical Association, Hospital & Clinical Pharmacy division aimed at creating awareness on importance of reporting and management of adverse drug reactions and drug induced illness in clinical practice.

A total of 240 delegates from different parts of India and also from other countries like Kenya, Nepal, Srilanka participated in the seminar, a release informed.

The seminar was inaugurated by Sri Sri Desikendra Mahaswamiji. Vishweshwara Reddy, registrar (evaluation), RGUHS was the chief guest on the occasion and Kiran Nyfort-Hansen, senior clinical pharmacist, Adelaide, was the president for the inaugural function. Prof B G Naresh Kumar, advisor, AICTE and Sten Olsson, Uppsala Monitoring Centre, also attended the function.

The scientific session started with a talk on the importance and need of pharmacovigilance presented by Dr Shanti Pal WHO-Headquarters, Geneva. Dr G Parthasarathi spoke on the topic ‘Basic needs to establish a pharmacovigilance centre’. He highlighted various points like how to start pharmacovigilance centre, where it should be located, funding, organisation, staffing infrastructure, basic steps involved.

Dr Ruth Ferguson, specialist pharmacist in cardiology and renal medicine, New Zealand shared her experiences. Her talk focused on intensive prescription monitoring.

Hansen while speaking on ‘Detecting and Preventing ADRs, presented the importance of detection of ADR through case presentation.

After an ADR is reported its assessment is also necessary. This fact was addressed by M Ramesh in his talk on casualty assessment of suspected ADRs. He discussed various casualty assessment scales and the methods of interpreting the data.

The second session started with a lecture on the importance of good communication which is a necessary tool in reciprocating and interpreting an ADR delivered by Bruce Hugman, communication consultant to the Uppsala Monitoring Centre.

Sten Olsson spoke on ‘Excipients and Adverse Drug Reactions’. He said that there should be suspicion for excipients apart from active ingredient. Thomas R Einarson, faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto spoke on Methods of Drug Safety Monitoring. Scientific paper poster session was also organised.

The speakers on the last day included Stefan Kowalski, senior lecturer, University of South Australia & Repatriation General Hospital, South Africa; Adrienne Einarson, Motherisk’s assistant director; Sten Olsson; Dr K N Bopanna, medical advisor, AstraZeneca, Bangalore; Andrew Gilbert, dean, South Australian College of Pharmacy and Malcolm Partridge, chief pharmacist, Queen’s medical Centre University Hospital, Nottingham, England.