August 9, 2017

Use of social media and crowd sourcing data analytics to increase drug safety and public awareness

Pharmacovigilance entails monitoring drug safety in the real world. Millions of people share their experiences using medications on social media platforms. This is may be a valuable resource to detect emerging safety signals and contribute to improved ppharmacovigilance. The objective of this study was to assess the value and feasibility of social media pharmacovigilance and estimate the agreement of potential adverse events detected through social media posts, with adverse events available through an existing spontaneous reporting drug safety databases. Research findings, looking at 10 drug products, suggest pharmacosurveillance using social media to be feasible.   

For more information, contact: Autumn Neville, Research Coordinator. autumn.neville@rimuhc.ca

This research is funded by CIHR-DSEN 
Lead investigator: Dr. David Buckeridge
Query 16-01 raised by Health Canada, Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) and Resource Management and Operations Directorate