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Introduction: Current trends in drug safety suggest
that all drugs, whether they are new or old, need
constant surveillance. Pharmacovigilance is an active
process of spontaneous adverse drug reactions (ADR)
monitoring which aims to ensure that medicines are used
as safely as possible. The purpose of pharmacovigilance
is to prevent patients suffering from harmful effects of
drugs. A large number of hospital patients receive drugs
as a part of their treatment. Keeping the efficacy of
these drugs apart, they are also associated with
incidences of ADRs. It is necessary to capture those
ADRs and analyze the risk and benefit ratio of a
particular drug. It is easier to keep surveillance on
the use of drugs in the hospital setting because of the
presence of Pharmacy & Therapeutic Committee. By
constant pharmacovigilance on all the drugs used in the
hospital, it is possible to identify those drugs which
are causing more side effects and their therapeutic
usefulness is similar to or lesser than other
alternatives.
What is Pharmacy & Therapeutic Committee?
The Pharmacy and Therapeutic Committee (PTC) is an
advisory group that considers essentially all the
matters related to the use of drugs in a hospital
including evaluation of drugs & dosage forms and safe
use of investigational drugs. It is responsible for
framing policies and procedures for selection,
procurement, dispensing, labeling, availability,
administration, and control of drugs throughout the
hospital. This committee is composed of physicians,
pharmacists and other health care professionals selected
with the guidance of the medical staff. It is a policy
recommending body to the medical staff and the
administration of the hospital on matters related to the
therapeutic use of drugs. It encourages rational use of
drug in the hospital and also monitors issues relating
to drug safety. One of the most important functions of
PTC is to prepare and update hospital formulary, which
provides information on various drugs to be used in the
hospital.
Role of PTC in Pharmacovigilance
PTC in a hospital can play a vital supervisory role in
the pharmacovigilance. The therapeutic committee should
be empowered with full responsibility for decisions and
coordinating pharmacovigilance activities in a hospital
setting. Committee can make systems so that all health
care professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists),
together with patients, are included in a better
reporting system. Committee can make compulsory
reporting for health professionals. Incentives/bonuses
could be provided to encourage health professionals to
fulfill this obligation of continuous reporting.
Committee can devise a mechanism to stimulate and to
allow patients to notify ADRs with the support of health
professionals directly to the therapeutic committee
rather than to the pharmaceutical industry.
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