A new system for monitoring the safety of marketed drugs and other medical products is being developed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to medical scientists writing in the New England Journal of Medicine this week. But a host of challenges will need to be overcome before it can be used successfully, they suggest.
Harnessing the power of electronic databases, the Sentinel Initiative aims to improve safety monitoring using large volumes of health data collected from US health insurance companies. Bringing together and analysing these data without compromising patients’ privacy are the first hurdles in this process, according to authors Jerry Avorn and Sebastian Schneeweiss.
Read more on the Emerging Health Threats Forum.