Social Media and Pharmacovigilance - DIA

DIA will hold their annual meeting in Washington DC from Sunday June 13th to Thursday 17th. On Wednesday of that week, I will join a panel discussion on the current use of social media and Web 2.0 tools. My presentation and contribution will focus on how Pharmacovigilance can develop to accommodate and utilise these new tools in order to evaluate and minimise risk potentially associated healthcare delivery.

Social media and Web 2.0 have the potential to improve delivery of medical information, to inform on risk, to facilitate access to treatments, to monitor patients remotely and to provide higher levels of care for patients around the world.

However, we have to be mindful of the data protection provisions, internet security, personal privacy and laws/regulations governing our healthcare delivery. These points are confounded by the complexity of national laws, cultural diversity and different national healthcare systems. Compare this with the internet which is global and transcends national borders. Therefore, to safely and effectively embrace the opportunity that new tools potentially offer, we have to navigate diligently through the complexity and ensure that trust is maintained between the various stakeholders in this space.