Question about pharmacovigilance and pharmacists

[missfuturepharmd]

I have a question about "pharmacovigilence" Here's the scenario


a patient is taking 6 different medications with only two dealing with her actual condition. The other 4 treat the side effects of the two medications. This patient is constantly in pain and always throwing up. So how does a pharmacist's knowledge of pharmacovilence help this patient?

How much knowledge do pharmacists know these days about pharmcovigilence and adverse drug reaction reporting? I am currently writing my personal statement for pharmacy school and my mother was the patient mentioned above ^. A pharmacist actually told us the amount of medications she was taking was ridiculous and told us that she only needed one medication to treat her condition. This pretty much inspired me to become a pharmacist and I want to prevent this from happening to other people and my coworker told me it has to do with pharmovigilence so how can I incorporate that into my personal statement? I researched and i have no clue how much knowledge pharmacists in the U.S have when it comes to this. So if you are currently a pharmacist or a doctor who deals with pharmacist, advice would be much appreciated


or even if you are a pharmacist and you have no clue about what pharmacovigilence is, can you reply and let me know you have no idea what I am talking about?

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[HelpfulPharmer1]

or even if you are a pharmacist and you have no clue about what pharmacovigilence is, can you reply and let me know you have no idea what I am talking about?

Subject: pharmacovigilance:
Folks, correct me if I am wrong, I think we have been doing the concept of pharmacovigilance with the similar concept called MedWatch.
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/

I looked up the term pharmacovigilance at FDA website and got this on page 4 of included document.

Source: Retrieved 11-11-2015 from link:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM126834.pdf

"This guidance uses the term pharmacovigilance to mean all scientific and data gathering activities relating to the detection, assessment, and understanding of adverse events. This includes the use of pharmacoepidemiologic studies. These activities are undertaken with the goal of identifying adverse events and understanding, to the extent possible, their nature, frequency, and potential risk factors.
Pharmacovigilance principally involves the identification and evaluation of safety signals. In
this guidance document, safety signal refers to a concern about an excess of adverse events
compared to what would be expected to be associated with a product's use. Signals can arise from postmarketing data and other sources, such as preclinical data and events associated with other products in the same pharmacologic class.
It is possible that even a single well-documented case report can be viewed as a signal, particularly if the report describes a positive rechallenge or if the event is extremely rare in the absence of drug
use. Signals generally indicate the need for further investigation, which may or may not lead to the conclusion that the product caused the event. After a signal is identified, it should be further assessed to determine
whether it represents a potential safety risk and whether other action should be taken...."

Source: Retrieved 11-11-2015 from link:
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM126834.pdf

File attached for your reference

 

[HelpfulPharmer1]

The other 4 treat the side effects of the two medications. This patient is constantly in pain and always throwing up. So how does a pharmacist's knowledge of pharmacovilence help this patient?
The answer depends on medication your mom was taking.

Here's an educated approach...one of many possible solutions depending on the condition mom has and med mom took...
If mom was taking pain reliever and doctor forgot and therefore mom suffered constipation causing abdominal cramps and pain, a pharmacist will instantly know to bring in stool softener to soften stool plus intestinal stimulant to push the stool out.

Throwing up can be caused by a lot of reasons.
If throwing up is caused by sensitive stomach and if medication can be taken with food then take medication with food to cushion stomach and slow down the speed of absorption a little bit to prevent throwing up.

We can not provide super detailed answer here because the discussion will be closed by moderator if we involve too much details. For your mom, try searching the web for free doctor. I searched "free doctor" and got many links....example: http://www.mdtalks.com/ask-a-doctor-free-online/

How much knowledge do pharmacists know these days about pharmcovigilence and adverse drug reaction reporting?
We were forced to learn a lot more than just counting pills. You can get free sample questions of NAPLEX National board exam and State board exam to see the level of knowledge pharmacist must know to get license.
We report unwanted drug reaction if we have enough credible reasons to report.

I am currently writing my personal statement for pharmacy school and my mother was the patient mentioned above ^.
Great...Congratulations on finding passion in pharmacy...

A pharmacist actually told us the amount of medications she was taking was ridiculous and told us that she only needed one medication to treat her condition.
That pharmacist's answer is subject to second opinion, maybe even third opinion of other pharmacists to arrive at middle ground win-win therapy.

This pretty much inspired me to become a pharmacist and I want to prevent this from happening to other people
Great....see you soon here....

and my coworker told me it has to do with pharmovigilence so how can I incorporate that into my personal statement?
I think mom's case has many ties to the concept called Medication Therapy Management, abbreviated to be MTM, which costs about 90 dollars a session because pharmacist has to spend long time to review all medications; I have done such sessions in 30 minutes or more which I doubt you got (for free) as a quick consultation.

I researched and i have no clue how much knowledge pharmacists in the U.S have when it comes to this.
We can have educated guess that pharmacists know a lot about drug adjustments because we devote a lot of time into learning everything about the drugs. Pharmacist don't diagnose complicated disease. After physicians diagnosed a disease and picked drugs for treatment, pharmacist can be very helpful for those picked drugs. We were told physicians got 1 or 2 semesters about drugs in medical school while pharmacist got all semesters about drugs in pharmacy school.

To start, any new pharmacist graduated approximately after 2003 is a person forced to learn enough to earn Doctorate degree. Some old long time respectful pharmacists have Bachelor's degree.

So if you are currently a pharmacist or a doctor who deals with pharmacist, advice would be much appreciated
You are welcome....now go hug your mom.