National Pharmacovigilance Week concludes at DMCH 

Ludhiana: On the concluding day of the National Pharmacovigilance Week on Friday, the department of Pharmacology, DMCH conducted an awareness programme for doctors, students and patients. The theme of the awareness programme was “Encouraging reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) by patients”. 

In the morning the department organised a poster competition amongst the undergraduate medical students. The students presented two posters each, one for doctors to encourage ADR reporting and other for patients to make them aware about what ADRs are, how to suspect and whom to report.

ShPrem Kumar Gupta, Secretary DMCH Managing Society lauded the efforts of the department of Pharmacology and congratulated the students for simplifying the message for patients and their families.  

Dr. Sandeep Kaushal, Prof.& Head, Department of Pharmacology and Dean Academic explained that ADRs are unintentended  effects that accompany the usage of medication by the patients. He said that this competition will definitely help the budding doctors in reporting the ADRs in future.Later the faculty of the department delivered a talk regarding ADR awareness in the OPD complexes of DMCH, HDHI and Oncology Centre. The patients and their family members were informed that according to the newer guidelines, all patients can report their ADRs directly at the toll free number 1800 180 3024. Patients can also report the ADRs through the “ADR PvPI Android app on their mobile phones. They can also download the forms through this link “https://www.ipc.gov.in/PvPI/adr.html” and send through e-mail or post. The patients were advised to declare the ADRs or drug allergy, if any, along with their name to the doctor so that the doctor can choose the drugs patients based on their earlier experience and current problems in a manner which is expected to benefit them with minimum risk of ADRs.

Dr Sandeep Puri, Principal; Dr GS Wander, Vice Principal; Dr Ashwani Chaudhary, Dr Sandeep Sharma and Dr Bishav Mohan, Medical Superintends of DMCH gave a message to report ADRs for making the drugs safe for patients and appealed to facility and residents to incorporate this practice of ADR reporting. The other members of the faculty Dr Shalini, Dr Kanchan, Dr Bharti and Dr Kirandeep coordinated the event and guided the students to share their views with clinical experts in the OPD.