Uppsala Monitoring Centre Information & Uppsala Monitoring Centre Links at HealthHaven.com

The Uppsala Monitoring Centre (the UMC), located in Uppsala, Sweden, is the field name for the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring. The UMC works by collecting, assessing and communicating information from member countries' national pharmacovigilance programs in regards to the benefits, harm, effectiveness and risks of drugs.^[1]

Since 1978, responsibility for managing the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring has been carried by the UMC. In the early years the staff consisted of just three pharmacists based at the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Läkemedelsverket); currently over 50 staff work in central Uppsala. The founding chairman and acting Director was Professor Åke Liljestrand and since 1990 the Director has been Professor Ralph Edwards.

The work of the UMC is:

To co-ordinate the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring and its more than 90 member countries
To collect, assess and communicate information from member countries about the benefits, harms and risks of drugs and other substances used in medicine to improve patient therapy and public health worldwide
To collaborate with member countries in the development and practice of the science of pharmacovigilance.

The main focus and source of data in pharmacovigilance are reports of ICSRs (individual case safety reports) from healthcare providers and patients in member countries of the WHO Programme. A WHO global individual case safety report database (Vigibase) is maintained and developed on behalf of the WHO by the UMC.^[2]

[edit] Key dates in the WHO programme

1968 WHO Programme established. International ADR terminology and drug dictionary
1969 Definition of ADR
1978 Operations transferred to the UMC; setting-up of relational ADR database. Regular WHO Programme member meetings
1981 Computerised version of WHO Drug Dictionary available to all
1982 ATC classification coding of all medicinal products
1985 International expert review panel created
1991 On-line WHO database search programme available to national centres
1991 Definitions of adverse event, side effect and causality assessment terms
1993 Windows-based client server program for online database searches
1993 Regular training and educational activities
1994 Methodology for use of denominator data for calculation of ADR reporting rates
1997 Knowledge-detection tool for automated signal detection (BCPNN)
1997 Promotion of communication as a necessary discipline in pharmacovigilance : the 'Erice Declaration'
1998 Internet discussion group for national centres
2001 Start of Vigibase Online project (now VigiFlow)
2002 New database system (Vigibase)
2004 Pattern recognition using the BCPNN on health databases to find safety information.
2005 Launch of expanded WHO Drug Dictionary with additional data fields; agreement with IMS Health to increase information in the dictionary

[edit] See also

^ Drug Benefits and Risks - International Textbook of Clinical Pharmacology (2nd edition). Van Boxtel C, Santoso B and Edwards IR, eds. IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2008.
^ Lindquist M. Vigibase, the WHO Global ICSR Database System: Basic Facts. Drug Information Journal, 2008, 42:409-419.

[edit] External links

[1], Uppsala Monitoring Centre home
[2], Uppsala Reports is the UMC's regular news bulletin for everyone concerned with the issues of pharmacovigilance.

[0] Drug Benefits and Risks - International Textbook of Clinical Pharmacology (2nd edition). Van Boxtel C, Santoso B and Edwards IR, eds. IOS Press, Amsterdam, 2008.

[1] Lindquist M. Vigibase, the WHO Global ICSR Database System: Basic Facts. Drug Information Journal, 2008, 42:409-419.

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