Drug safety-from Patients' Perspective

Abstract

Patients expect drugs are 100% effective and safe. Unfortunately, however, most drugs are not. Continuous efforts by healthcare professionals and industry should be made to maximize efficacy and safety. Here, four challenges are shown from a viewpoint of laypersons. 1) Develop better drugs: Continuous efforts to develop drugs for 'neglected' diseases should be enhanced to meet unmet medical needs. 2) Deliver right drugs: Medication errors caused by similar names and shapes have been repeatedly reported. Communication with patients and their families may be helpful to decrease errors. 3) Improve the quality of drug information: How health professionals provide drug information to patients should be routinely monitored to improve the quality. Rephrasing to plain expressions may sometimes be useful for better communication. 4) Promote personalized medicine: Each patient wants to know whether this drug would work to him/herself as well as statistical data. Pharmacogenomics and pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) research should be encouraged in order to develop personalized medicine. © 2011 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.