4th National Pharmacovigilance week was celebrated by the Department of Pharmacology in association with Pharmacovigilance Programme of India, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, Ghaziabad between the 17th to 23rd September, 2024. The theme for this year’s celebration was “Building ADR Reporting Culture for Patient Safety”.
The events of the week were inaugurated on the 17th by Principal, Dr. Gangadhara K. S, Chief of Hospital, Dr. Krishna Murthy V R and Head of Department of Pharmacology, Dr. Shubha Praveen with the release of the banner and Videos in Kannada and English educating the public about the importance of reporting adverse reactions. A talk on “Ecopharmacology – Awareness on Pharmaceutical Waste Products in Environment” was given by Dr. Shubha Praveen, Professor and Head was organised on the 19th. Hands on training for ADR reporting was given for more than 50 nursing staff in two batches on the 19th and 20th by Dr. Santhosh R, Professor. Sensitization and awareness talk was given to more than 30 ASHA health workers and 500 PUC students of BGS World School by Dr. Malini S, Associate Professor. An awareness talk was given to more than 75 final-year students of BAMS by Dr. Darsana S Kumar, Senior Resident. The awareness talks aids to build an ADR Reporting culture as per the theme.
On the concluding day of the National Pharmacovigilance Week, a guest lecture was organized on sensitizing and growing the reporting culture of adverse drug reactions among health care professionals. Guest lecture was delivered by Dr. Dinakar. K.R, Associate Manager, safety surveillance, Novo Nordisk service centre pvt ltd. Dr. Dinakar highlighted the importance of reporting ADR and the importance it has in preventing further ADR in patients and having a check on the safety aspects of the drugs used in therapy. He also stressed on the important difference between an adverse drug event and an adverse drug reaction and how it plays an important role in causality assessment and final creation of a signal. Dr. Dinakar also emphasized who and how an ADR can be reported and what happens once it’s reported. He also gave examples of drugs like ticagrelor which led to label updating on its safety aspect which helps prevent further ADR’s. The guest lecture was followed by a lively interactive session of Q & A between the guest lecturer and the dignitaries in the audience.
This was followed by fun yet educational activities relevant to pharmacovigilance among the health care professionals. An ADR-related crossword puzzle was organized among different teams of HCP. It was followed by pick and speak contest where topics were all related to pharmacovigilance and was overwhelmingly supported by contestants from various departments which reflected in the content of their speech. It was followed by Guess the Culprit where participants tried to guess the culprit drug with their adverse effects. The final event of the day was dumb charades which was thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated by all participants. Event concluded with felicitating the guest speaker and a vote of thanks.