A CME on “Awareness and Sensitization on Pharmacovigilance and ADR Reporting”

1. The Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS Mangalagiri conducted a CME on “Awareness and Sensitization on Pharmacovigilance and ADR Reporting” for Faculty and Nursing Officers on 10/02/2021 (Saturday).

2. As part of the initiative to disseminate information and knowledge on the importance of ADRs, a Poster Competition was also organised on the theme “Adverse Drug Reactions: Detection, Assessment and Prevention” for faculty, nursing officers and medical students.

3. AIIMS, Mangalagiri has been accorded approval as an ADR Monitoring Centre (AMC) under the Pharmaco-vigilance Programmes of India (PvPI) in February, 2021. Hence, this was organised as a CME cum ‘hands-on’ wksp to educate and train the medical professionals like doctors and nursing officers about pharmacovigilance and how to fill ADR forms.

4. On the day of the CME, the ADR Monitoring Centre was formally inaugurated by our honourable Director and CEO, AIIMS Mangalagiri Dr. Mukesh Tripathi. Dr. Joy Ghoshal, Dean and Dr. Rakesh Kakkar, MS also graced the occasion.

5. Dr. Arup Kumar Misra, Coordinator AMC gave an overview to the Director, Dean and MS regarding the process of Vigiflow and ADR reporting.

6. A special CME edition of our newsletter, ESSENCE was released by the Director and CEO, AIIMS Mangalagiri Dr. Mukesh Tripathi in presence of other dignitaries.

7. The dignitaries’ also scrutinised and appreciated the posters (Physical and E-Poster) that were received from institutes from all across the country.

8. A total of 29 participants attended the CME. The speakers were from the faculty from the Department of Pharmacology, AIIMS, Mangalagiri. They spoke on the evolution on pharmacovigilance, the structure of PvPI programme in India, the process of ADR reporting, the important stakeholders in ADR reporting, clinical aspect of pharmacovigilance and importance of signal detection. They also spoke on to how to fill ADR forms with the help of case scenario.

9. The last session was hands-on session on actual filling up of the ADR forms. It was done to sensitize the delegates and give them a real life feel on how to fill the ADR form on the basis of hypothetical cases followed by discussion.

10. Outcome of the training: The CME was successfully conducted. The delegates raised many queries on the important aspect of Pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting which was successfully answered and solved by the speakers. Hands-on was done on how to fill ADR
forms (Version 1.3) on hypothetical case scenario. The participants were enthusiastic and filled the forms quite successfully with the help of organizers. A lot of discussion took place on the various aspects of filling ADR form, the medico-legal angle link to ADR reporting and who can report. Their queries were successfully solved by the speakers involved in the Hands-on training. A pre and post-test questionnaire was given to the patient. Analysis of the test showed that there was significant improvement was noticed in the knowledge of the delegates regarding the importance of Pharmacovigilance and ADR reporting.