stematic Signalling of Adverse Reactions to Drugs

Abstract

Many national centres now cooperate with the World Health Organization in a system for monitoring information on suspected adverse reactions to therapeutic drugs. Proposals are made here for various methods of systematically producing signals from the computer files, with the object of indicating disproportions in frequencies that may be due to adverse reactions. Signals are intended to arouse suspicions and to stimulate deeper investigation; they are not to be equated with warnings of danger. Emphasis is laid on the dissemination of signals to national centres and on the logic of interpretation. Particularly important is restriction of the number of non-urgent signals, so as to ensure a reasonable chance of thorough investigation nationally for each that is transmitted.