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Spontaneous adverse event reporting from healthcare professionals and patients is a cornerstone in pharmacovigilance systems. Unfortunately, it is a well-known issue that only a fraction of events is reported. To further complicate matters, poor quality reports present a significant challenge for pharmacovigilance assessors. In Uganda, several new routes have been introduced to facilitate reporting for patients and healthcare professionals, including email, WhatsApp and the Med Safety smartphone app. Henry Zakumumpa is a researcher at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. He has recently performed a qualitative study to learn more about drivers and obstacles for quality in adverse event reporting from patients and healthcare professionals in Uganda. He joins the Drug Safety Matters studio to help us get a more nuanced picture of challenges and opportunities around the issue.
 
 

Tune in to find out:

• Why are HIV patients in Uganda reluctant to report adverse events to their healthcare providers?
• What are the challenges with reporting via WhatsApp?
• How can regulators and PV centres foster better quality in incoming adverse event reports?

Want to know more?

• Listen to Henry talk about the safety of HIV medications in this 2022 episode of Drug Safety Matters.
• Visit this CARTA (Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa) profile page to learn more about Henry’s research.
• Improving the spontaneous reporting of suspected adverse drug reactions: An overview of systematic reviews (British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2023)
• Improving adverse drug event reporting by healthcare professionals (Cochrane Database Systematic Review, 2024)

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Uppsala Monitoring Centre promotes safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.