Pharmacovigilence Center Organizes a series of awareness workshops

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Within the framework of its activities, the National Pharmacovigilence Center is organizing a series of awareness workshops and lectures to healthcare professionals, e.g. pharmacists, physicians and technicians in major hospitals throughout the various regions of the Kingdom. SFDA personnel will introduce the role and objectives of the center, explain the concept of Pharmacovigilence and its role in elimination of drugs side-effects and the role of SFDA in surveillance of pharmaceutical products quality; in addition to full description of the electronic-reporting form and other means of reporting prepared for this purpose: e.g. pre-paid postal forms, e-mail, telephone, and fax, to encourage healthcare practitioners in both public &amp; private sectors to report about drug side effects, drug quality and provide easy access to the center via different communication channels. A study revealed that 86.8% of private sector pharmacists in the Kingdom are not aware of the existence of a reporting system for dtheurg side effects incidents. The same study also revealed that lack of a clear address, reporting forms, and lack of awareness of reporting methods, represented the key barriers for reporting of such incidents. Due to the importance of the role of private sector’s pharmacists in the ideal use and security of drugs, SFDA thrived to remove these barriers through organizing two workshops targeting private sector’s pharmacists, in cooperation with Al Nahdi group of pharmacies, to identify the concept of Pharmacovigilence and role of private sector’s pharmacists in protection of the community from adverse effects of drugs and in provision of better health service to patients. The workshops will be held in Riyadh on 27/3/1432H (2.3.2011) and Jeddah province on 4/4/1432H (9/3/2011).</p>