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Pharmacists will be able to report adverse drug reactions through the Yellow Card scheme more easily thanks to a new health service partnership.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has teamed up with the UK Medicines Information service (UKMI) to improve the reporting system.
The study will allow any adverse drug effects to be recorded and a Yellow Card automatically produced to inform the MHRA of the side effects.
The new electronic reporting system is now being evaluated by medicines information pharmacists at five NHS hospitals in the UK.
The study is being led by Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust on behalf of UKMI. The MHRA targeted research programme will be supporting and monitoring the introduction of this system in the five UK medicines information centres. The system will be deployed nationwide once the pilot is successfully completed.
The introduction of the system for Yellow Card reporting will be integrated into ‘MiDatabank’ system, produced by COACS and UKMI. This database is already used in medicines information centres across the UK for documenting, researching and answering enquiries.
Dr June Raine, director of vigilance and risk management of medicines at the MHRA said: “Medicines information pharmacists provide important support on individual pharmaceutical care of patients and advice about medicines management in the NHS.
“The integration of Yellow Card reporting into this system will allow information to be more easily shared with the MHRA for effective drug safety monitoring. ”
Copyright Press Association 2010
