Grant: Rapid Funding for DSEN Targeted Research

Prescription drugs help many people to live better lives, but sometimes the same drugs can have unexpected adverse effects. If an adverse effects is serious or occurring frequently, drug regulators in the federal government need to know so that can advise doctors and patients and possibly change the way the drug can be used. Traditionally, regulators find out about adverse effects because physicians, drug makers, and patient submit forms describing adverse events, but this is done for only a small number of adverse events. Consequently many adverse events are not identified until long after they start to occur among people taking a drug. An alternative approach to detecting adverse events is to listen to what people are saying about their drugs on social media. This approach uses artificial intelligence methods to comb through posts to Twitter and patient forums, identifying patterns in how patients taking different drugs mention adverse events. The MedWatcher Social software system was developed and evaluated in the US and Europe to perform this type of social medial monitoring for adverse events. In this study, we will implement and the MedWatcher Social in Canada and evaluate its ability to detect adverse drug events and how useful it is to drug regulators in Canada.