Oviya MedSafe – Spearheading Advocacy for Translational Pharmacovigilance
By admin Dear Well-wishers,
I would like to start this August 2018 edition of Oviya MedSafe‘s newsletter with my usual ebullience, albeit on a little unconventional note, thanks to some interesting conversations I had with new members who joined Oviya MedSafe at entry level positions recently.
While each individual gave a different answer to my favourite question on why they chose pharmacovigilance as their career, one of them emphatically stated that they did so because pharmacovigilance gave them an opportunity to be of humanitarian service to the society. While every person’s answer was relevant in some way or the other, this responsible perspective of visualizing pharmacovigilance as one’s commitment to the community at large instantly appealed to me and led me to recall how Oviya MedSafe has been spearheading advocacy for ‘Translational Pharmacovigilance’ without looking at the domain of pharmacovigilance only as a business vertical, ever since the founding of the organization in 2012.
At this juncture, it may be useful for us to review the meaning of the term ‘translational‘ in the context of ‘Translational Medicine‘. The European Society for Translational Medicine (EUSTM) defines in this publication that Translational Medicine is an interdisciplinary branch of the biomedical field supported by three main pillars: benchside, bedside and community. It goes on further to state that the goal of Translational Medicine is to combine disciplines, resources, expertise, and techniques within these pillars to promote enhancements in prevention, diagnosis, and therapies. It is not difficult to extrapolate these principles to pharmacovigilance, as the primary purpose of pharmacovigilance is to protect the consumers of medicinal products. In fact, Translational Pharmacovigilance may also be viewed as a part and parcel of Translational Medicine.
While on this topic, it may be pertinent for me to highlight my invited lecture at TAPPCON 2018, the 4th Annual State (Tamil Nadu & Puducherry) Conference on Pulmonary Diseases organized recently at Coimbatore, India. While I have been speaking to clinicians on the topic of pharmacovigilance and persuading them to report suspected adverse drug reactions since 2010 (even when I had not founded Oviya MedSafe), TAPPCON 2018 is the first medical conference belonging to a speciality outside my own speciality of Diabetology to have me as an invited speaker. During my talk, I provided a quick overview of key pharmacovigilance activities that would be performed once a suspected adverse drug reaction gets reported.
Earlier, my interview titled ‘Keep an eye on Indian drugs to prevent rare side-effects: Pharmacovigilance expert‘ was published in Chennai-based English daily newspaper ‘News Today‘ in which I touched upon the key aspects of pharmacovigilance as it is in India today and explained what the discipline deals with, for the benefit of understanding of people who are outside the pharmacovigilance domain. Please go through the interview and share your feedback, if any.
As a milestone in my quest to unearth the benefits that Translational Pharmacovigilance could give to the society, I have been invited to moderate a colloquium session titled ‘Perspectives on Pharmacovigilance Awareness & Challenges in India‘ at the 5th Annual Pharmacovigilance Symposium of ISCR (Indian Society for Clinical Research) which is scheduled to be held at Mumbai on Friday, 28th September 2018. This session will exclusively focus on the views of the non-industry pharmacovigilance stakeholders in India, namely the medical practitioners, consumer groups, adverse drug reaction monitoring centres and pharmaceutical academia. As a doctor and as the incumbent Chairman of the Pharmacovigilance Standing Committee of the Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch, it is my privilege to have Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, National President of the IMA (Indian Medical Association) as part of my session. The theme of this symposium is ‘Pharmacovigilance in India – Navigating the Transforming Landscape‘. To view/download the flyer with the agenda (as it is today) and to register for attending this symposium, please click on this link. Of course, there is a lot more to achieve in terms of making Translational Pharmacovigilance an absolute reality. But, the increasingly enthusiastic interest being shown by all the stakeholders promise that the journey ahead will be interesting and productive.
Before signing off, I would like to share that I will be speaking at the ‘International Conference on Drug Development and Clinical Research: Current Scenario & Opportunities‘ which has been organized by Krupanithi College of Pharmacy at Bengaluru on 12th and 13th October 2018. I have also accepted to speak at the co-located ‘International Conference on Management 4.0‘ organized by Krupanithi School of Management on the same dates. I join the organizers of these conferences in inviting you to register yourselves as delegates.
Looking forward to re-connecting with you in September 2018,
With thanks & regards,
Dr J Vijay Venkatraman
MBBS, F. Diab., MBA, FPIPA (UK)
Managing Director & CEO,
Oviya MedSafe Pvt Ltd,
Coimbatore, India
Phone: +91-422-2444442
Director,
Oviya MedSafe UK Ltd,
London, UK
Phone: +44-8452-733839
Web: www.oviyamedsafe.com
Mail: info@oviyamedsafe.com
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