In 1963, during the 16th World Health Assembly, a resolution passed for the monitoring of adverse drug incidents which led the formation of the WHO Program for International Drug Monitoring, “a systematic collection of information on serious adverse drug reactions during the development and particularly after medicines have been made available for public use”. Uppsala Monitoring Centre is one of five officially designated collaborating centers within the WHO Program for International Drug Monitoring, celebrates Medicine Safety Week each year.

Campaign for Medicine Safety Awareness

In solidarity with Medicine, Safety Week focused on polypharmacy during 25–29 November 2019 for safe use of medicines, Pharma Trax being a Pharmaceutical Traceability Solution provider conducting Medicine Safety Week for awareness about adverse drug events.

• The occurrence of adverse events due to unsafe care is likely one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability across the world
• Unsafe medication practices and medication errors harm millions of patients and costs billions of US dollars every year
• The World Health Organization wants to reduce severe avoidable medication-related harm globally by 50% by 2022

Solution

• Roll out and optimize electronic prescribing and medicines administration systems
• Roll out proven interventions, where pharmacists identify patients who are at risk from hazardous prescribing
• Improve the information available to patients to promote joint decision-making
• Use patient-friendly packaging and labeling
• Improve shared care across different settings
• Embed adequate training in safe and effective medicines use in undergraduate training and continuing professional development
• Encourage reporting of medication errors
• Reduce inappropriate polypharmacy

#MedSafetyWeek

Source: https://www.who-umc.org/global-pharmacovigilance/pharmacovigilance-communications/medsafetyweek