Welcome | Date: 18 January 2010
Improving Follow-Up Rates in Spontaneous Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting
British researchers have developed targeted follow-up letters designed to make it easier for regulators to obtain important follow-up information after spontaneous reports of suspected adverse drug reactions.
The redesigned follow-up request letters including tick-boxes targeted to obtain appropriate information. Researchers then tracked response rates for a five-year period both before and after the change to the letters. They found that the new targeted follow-up letters were associated with greater mean follow-up success rates, from an average annual response rate of 36.4 percent to 60.5 percent. Additionally, the results showed that closing cases to follow-up information at 70 days would allow collection of 78 percent of all follow-up data that would ever be submitted.
"Improving Follow-Up Rates in Spontaneous Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting"
Drug Safety (12/10) Vol. 32, No. 12, P. 1135; Anton, Christopher; Cox, Anthony R.; Ferner, Robin E