Abstract

MAZA LARREA, José Antonio; AGUILAR ANGUIANO, Luz María  and  MENDOZA BETANCOURT, Julio Amadeo. Pharmacovigilance: an important step in patient safety. Rev. sanid. mil. [online]. 2018, vol.72, n.1, pp.47-53.  Epub Aug 20, 2019. ISSN 0301-696X.

Although awareness of the correct use of substances used for the treatment of different diseases has the same Hippocratic principle of: «first do no harm», this was not made concrete as an ex-professed activity for the monitoring of its effects, which in recent times is called pharmacovigilance. Pharmacovigilance activities were prompted by major serious adverse reactions to drugs that were warning signs that, while they are intended to improve health status, they also have the potential to be harmful in significant, even fatal, ways. Pharmacovigilance activities, as a global effort, aim to improve the safety of medicines by monitoring post-marketing adverse reactions in the open population. With the historical development of medical science, it has also become evident the need to implement mechanisms to reduce the potential for human error, as well as to identify and manage the risks and problems related to medicines; it has also been important to promote a reporting culture in order to warn of the problem, analyze its causality, and with everybody’s effort, establish mechanisms that improve the safety profile of the nations’ medication system. Mexico, as an important actor in global decision-making, has not remained isolated in the face of this scenario, and joins the efforts of the health authorities themselves in taking important steps, implementing actions that go from the regulatory sphere, and have permeated the entire health sector of our country. Faced with this hopeful scenario, it would be irresponsible to lower our guard; on the contrary, we must redouble our efforts to implement a pharmacovigilance programme. These efforts do not escape us, and that with the creation of the Hospital Pharmacovigilance Unit of the Central Military Hospital in 2014, our institution is consistent with the vision of quality and health safety.

Keywords : Pharmacovigilance; patient safety; medication system.

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