Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, the National Coordination Centre for the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India recently organised a Pharmacovigilance CME for Practising Doctors, in technical collaboration with Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch, at Chennai. The event saw participation of 75 clinicians and pharmacologists.
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Oviya MedSafe and Secretary Elect, Indian Medical Association – Coimbatore Branch, who was the coordinator of the CME programme welcomed the gathering and thanked the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission and the office bearers of Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch for making the event a reality. He mentioned that Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch was the first professional association of clinicians with whom Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission had collaborated while organising the nationwide CMEs over the past few years.
Dr YK Gupta, National Scientific Co-ordinator, PvPI and HoD of Pharmacology, AIIMS, New Delhi inaugurated the CME and applauded the Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch for partnering with the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission to promote pharmacovigilance awareness. He congratulated the state of Tamil Nadu for achieving the highest level of health indicators across the country and for also being a leader in healthcare services in India.
Dr M Balasubramanian, President, Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch expressed his happiness in partnering with the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission. He added that the Indian Medical Association has been playing a key role in all national health programmes so far and henceforth, it will take an active part in the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India too. He emphasised that Indian Medical Association on its own too had been trying its best to promote pharmacovigilance awareness among doctors by organising various CME programmes in the past.
Dr CN Raja, Secretary, Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch appreciated the initiatives of Dr V Kalaiselvan, Principal Scientific Officer, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission for his untiring efforts in making the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India more and more successful across the country. He also recognised the interest of Dr J Vijay Venkatraman which was one of the main reasons for the Indian Medical Association to get involved in organising this CME programme. He committed that IMA Tamil Nadu will make pharmacovigilance an important part of its activities. Dr T Senthamil Pari, Vice President, IMA Tamil Nadu – North Zone, felicitated the function.
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman and Dr V Kalaiselvan spoke on the Basics of Pharmacovigilance and on the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India. Dr S Gunasakaran (Head – Clinical Research & Medical Affairs, Azidus Laboratories), Dr C Ramachandra Bhat (HoD of Pharmacology, KMC, Chennai) and Dr JV Srinivas (Senior Medical Officer – Clinical Research, SRM Institute of Medical Science, Chennai) spoke on patient safety monitoring in an out patient department, pharmacovigilance in a hospital set-up (tertiary and government) and pharmacovigilance in a hospital set-up (tertiary and private) respectively. Dr Bikash Medhi, Additional Professor of Pharmacology, PGIMER, Chandigarh elaborated on how to report ADRs using the suspected ADR reporting form and also provided an overview of the causality analysis methodology of the ADR reports.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai