HOW DOES PHARMACOVIGILANCE WORK

In France, pharmacovigilance relies mainly on spontaneous reporting of adverse effects of drugs and on pharmacoepidemiologic studies. The ph armacovigilance network is an official structure whose role is to info rm physicians and pharmacists, to evaluate causality using standardize d methods, and to establish a register of drug-related adverse events. Some of the data generated by the pharmacovigilance system are presen ted based on a review of the literature. Pharmacovigilance is a key so urce of information that should serve to guide the development of medi cal technologies and drugs with the goal of improving the safety of tr eatments. The pharmacovigilance system should become an indispensable tool for all those who work in the field of health.