Boosting Medicine Safety: A Plan to Encourage Consumer Reporting

This: you take a new medicine, but instead of feeling better, you experience some unexpected side effects. These are called adverse medicine events (AMEs). Believe it or not, up to 70% of these events go unreported, meaning health professionals don't know about them. Only a tiny fraction, around 6%, makes it to the regulators. This is a big problem because it affects the safety of medicines for everyone. Now, picture this: a digital platform designed with consumers in mind, where you can easily report any adverse effects you experience. This is what the ReMedi Project is all about. The goal is to get more people, including consumers, health professionals, and pharmaceutical companies, to report AMEs. This way, regulators can detect and address these issues, making medicines safer for all.But why is reporting so low? Well, there are many reasons, like not knowing how or where to report, or thinking it's not important. The ReMedi Project aims to change this by making the reporting process simple and accessible. They plan to use a multimethod research approach, which means they'll look at this problem from different angles and use various tools to find the best solutions. One interesting part of the project is co-designing the digital platform with consumers. This means involving real people who have experienced AMEs in the design process. This approach can help create a platform that truly meets the needs of consumers, making it more likely they'll use it. Increasing AME reporting is crucial for improving medicine safety. It can help regulators identify potential risks earlier and take action to protect consumers. So, if you ever experience an AME, remember: reporting it could make a big difference.