With vaccine hesitancy on the rise and misinformation spreading like wildfire on social media, drug safety specialists may have a hard time knowing how to talk about side effects without affecting people’s trust in vaccinations. Anthony Cox from the University of Birmingham and Daniel Salmon from the Institute for Vaccine Safety share their best advice for balanced and responsible vaccine safety communication. Tune in to find out: Why we can’t allow bad actors to damage the drive for openness in...
Nov 03, 2021•29 min
It’s not always easy to choose the best medicine for a child. Some drugs are inappropriate for young patients, while others require special consideration or monitoring. For years, clinicians had only historical dogmas, word of mouth and their own experience to guide their choices. But a valuable new resource promises to change paediatric prescribing for the better. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brou...
Oct 05, 2021•31 min
Fuelled by disinformation and an array of other cultural and economic factors, vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest global health communication challenges of our times. But to craft the empathetic and tailored communication strategies required to boost confidence in vaccines, we first need to understand the difference between anti-vaccination belief and vaccine hesitancy. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance mag...
Aug 30, 2021•35 min
Genetic variation is one of the reasons people differ in their response to medicines. Understanding that variation can inform more refined choices of drugs and doses – ultimately preventing undesired side effects. Join us as we discuss past, present and future of pharmacogenomics with Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s Qun-Ying Yue. Tune in to find out: How genetic biomarkers can guide medicine use and dosing recommendations What we need to effectively implement genetic-based prescribing in clinical pr...
Jul 29, 2021•30 min
With COVID-19 vaccinations rolling at full speed in many countries, there’s a lot of talk about vaccine safety monitoring. But what exactly does that mean and how should we be interpreting data on side effects? Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s Helena Sköld and Annette Rudolph walk us through the basics of vaccine pharmacovigilance. Tune in to find out: How suspected side effects are reported and studied around the world Why a mere list of reported side effects says little about a vaccine’s safety pro...
Jun 24, 2021•27 min
While COVID-19 vaccinations are picking up speed in many wealthy countries, citizens of lower-income countries still face a long wait – and where demand exceeds supply, black markets tend to form. So to curb the spread of substandard and falsified products, says drug regulatory specialist Danini Marin, we must ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are distributed equitably around the world. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigil...
May 27, 2021•21 min
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is not only a biological issue, but a complex social problem. As a consequence, changing the way patients, healthcare professionals and policymakers think about antibiotics will require input from both the natural and social sciences. In March 2021, the Uppsala Health Summit on “Managing antimicrobial resistance through behaviour change” tackled this very problem. We spoke to three key participants – Otto Cars, Eldar Shafir and Vanessa Carter – to learn more. Tune ...
Apr 27, 2021•48 min
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world, so did waves of viral misinformation. For pharmacovigilance manager Marco Tuccori, fighting the “infodemic” is a massive, but necessary, battle. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here . After the read, Marco tells us how the pandemic has affected his work at the University Hospital of Pisa, Italy ...
Mar 26, 2021•27 min
By definition, a rare disease is one that only affects a handful of people in the world. But with more than 300 million people collectively affected by these conditions and only few approved treatments available, rare diseases constitute a major unmet medical need. Christina Ström Möller from Swedish biopharmaceutical company Sobi walks us through the scientific, commercial and human challenges of the rare disease landscape. Tune in to find out: What drug development, testing and distribution lo...
Feb 26, 2021•24 min
As the cradle of modern humanity, the African continent is home to populations with high levels of genetic diversity. But while this diversity has implications for the safety and efficacy of many drugs, African patients remain underrepresented in drug studies. In fact, while more than 400 medicines have pharmacogenetics information and public guidelines available, only 15 have been studied in African populations. Thankfully efforts to boost pharmacogenomics research in Africa are now underway. T...
Feb 03, 2021•12 min
In the age of evidence-based medicine, we may be tempted to dismiss intuition – the quick and automatic thought process we call “sixth sense” or “gut feeling” – as unscientific guesswork. But in clinical decision-making, intuitive reasoning is just as important as the slower and more analytical causal reasoning that healthcare professionals are trained in. In fact, without it we would hardly be able to formulate new hypotheses. Together with Eugene van Puijenbroek from the Netherlands pharmacovi...
Dec 17, 2020•25 min
In November 2020, longstanding UMC director Marie Lindquist began her well-earned retirement, leaving the reins of the organisation to her successor Hervé Le Louët. As she prepared to open a new chapter in her life, she sat down with Uppsala Reports to take a fond look back at an extraordinary career: a 40-year-long path that began with a knock on the door and turned her into one of the world’s leading advocates for patient safety. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – ...
Nov 26, 2020•10 min
Medication errors with vaccines can harm individual patients, but when they also undermine trust in public health programmes, serious problems can ripple across entire communities – as the Samoan healthcare crisis of 2018 dramatically showed. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices offers straightforward advice that could prevent those errors from happening again. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, b...
Oct 23, 2020•9 min
Clinical trials are the “gold standard” of evidence-based medicine – the best way we have to test whether a drug is safe and effective before it enters the market. But if trial data is poorly reported or – even worse – left unpublished, how are we supposed to determine the true value of a medical treatment? Peter Doshi from the RIAT Support Center has made it his mission to fix the problem and improve data transparency for good. Tune in to find out: How publication and reporting biases affect ou...
Sep 30, 2020•34 min
Communication and public outreach are an important part of a scientist’s job. But researchers often find it daunting to translate their expert knowledge for a lay audience. In this episode, UMC’s video producer Matthew Barwick shares a report from the Global Science Film Festival 2019, including interviews with festival organiser Samer Angelone and other participants. Tag along to learn their best tips for effective science communication and how to harness the power of film to tell stories in sc...
Aug 27, 2020•29 min
When reporting adverse reactions to drugs, people can choose from a plethora of different terms to describe their experience. But that makes it difficult and time-consuming for analysts to tell how similar two case safety reports are. A new method developed by UMC data scientist Lucie Gattepaille comes to the rescue. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brought to you in audio format. Find the original art...
Aug 06, 2020•23 min
How do we minimise the harm caused to patients by medicines and medical devices? In October 2019, a diverse, multi-stakeholder group met in Erice, Italy and drew up a 10-point plan for improving patient safety worldwide. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brought to you in audio format. Find the original article here . After the read, we reach UMC director Marie Lindquist in her home in Gothenburg, Swede...
Jul 16, 2020•18 min
Herbal substances can be found in a number of pharmaceutical drugs, cosmetics and food supplements – so it's not surprising that using plant names inconsistently can have serious health consequences. But with so much confusion around medicinal plant names, it’s easy to get it wrong. Bob Allkin from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew explains what we can do about it. Tune in to find out: How common, scientific and pharmaceutical plant names differ How Kew’s Medicinal Plant Names Services works How h...
Jun 25, 2020•40 min
As the end users of medicines, patients can provide first-hand information on side effects. The issues they report add a richness to our understanding of medicine safety that we could never achieve by relying on healthcare professionals’ reports alone – so it’s crucial that we listen to them. Linda Härmark from the Netherlands pharmacovigilance centre Lareb tells us more. Tune in to find out: What patient reports reveal about people’s use of medicines How to make best use of the information rela...
May 20, 2020•29 min
Most of us want healthcare to be both patient-centric and evidence-based. But are those two goals compatible? Can we tailor healthcare to our unique circumstances, while relying on the average statistical measurements that scientific evidence is based on? Emerging ideas in the philosophy of science are challenging a rigid reliance on evidence-based medicine and offering a more nuanced understanding of patient safety. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topic...
May 13, 2020•13 min
Most women are prescribed some form of medication during their pregnancy. Yet we know very little about the safety of those medicines when they’re used during pregnancy or breastfeeding. New collaborative efforts are now underway to plug that knowledge gap. This episode is part of the Uppsala Reports Long Reads series – the most topical stories from UMC’s pharmacovigilance magazine, brought to you in audio format. Find the text version here . Tune in to find out: Why clinical trials often fail t...
Apr 24, 2020•25 min
Fake medicines claim at least 200,000 lives every year, with the World Health Organization estimating that 1 in 10 medicines worldwide is now substandard or falsified. But with the market in illicit drugs worth up to $200 billion a year, and traffickers more likely to face a fine than jail time when they are caught, the financial incentives far outweigh the deterrents. So how do we put a stop to this deadly trade? Drug Safety Matters investigates with former Interpol officer and PMEDS program fo...
Jan 27, 2020•29 min
