AN ACUTE ADVERSE DRUG REACTION ALERTING SCHEME USING THE SASKATCHEWANHEALTH DATAFILES - RESULTS FOR 2 NONSTEROIDAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY DRUGS

Medical record linkage offers potential benefits for postmarketing sur veillance. The Saskatchewan Health datafiles record administrative inf ormation, which is linkable using unique numbers issued to each reside nt. The value of these datafiles in an acute adverse drug reaction (AD R) alerting scheme has been assessed using 2 nonsteroidal anti-inflamm atory drugs (NSAIDs). The first 20 000 patients who were dispensed pir oxicam and the first 20 000 who were dispensed sulindac were followed over the year after their initial prescription of the relevant drug an d all medical events occurring during treatment were recorded. The mos t frequent ADRs to NSAIDs are gastrointestinal problems. Although the rate of abdominal pain/swelling in the first month after the initial p rescription was significantly greater than that in the succeeding 6 mo nths among both drug groups, there was no strong indication of serious acute gastrointestinal ADRs in either group. Nevertheless, the result s indicate that the use of administrative datafiles in a systematic ev aluation of acute ADRs is a feasible and practical prospect.