Empower Future Professionals: Integrate Pharmacovigilance Training for a Safer Healthcare Tomorrow

Sunil et al. have aptly depicted the current state of pharmacovigilance (PV) affairs in India.[1] Being an emerging hub of global clinical trials, India has a dearth of adequately trained professionals in the domain of PV. We would like to highlight a few current situations in the training of PV professional is India. PV segment involves the need of drug safety physicians who have the basic qualification of MBBS to PV associates who are trained in PharmD and other branches of life sciences. The suggestion would be, akin to the National Medical Council adopting PV as an elective subject for specialty training during the 5.5-year MBBS course, other branches should implement training in PV as part of routine curriculum or during internship period.[2] The life science graduates also should be trained in PV, this is essential for securing job in PV industry as well as aid in hospital PV reporting. As authors highlight the need for integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning in signal processing, it is essential that the undergraduate students should be offered training in advanced computational modeling which will benefit them for securing jobs. At present, PV program of India offers 6 months internship in PV to graduates which helps them to enhance their skills in PV and is a highly coveted one. The PV sector is often not given the adequate importance it should be as it is evident from the lack of knowledge among healthcare professionals and low reporting patterns of adverse drug reactions (ADR) across India.[3,4] The patient perceptions also need to be improved in this regard. It is inevitable for the clinical trials to establish a foothold here in India without adequately trained professionals in this domain, which calls for awakening of the regulatory authorities to raise and ensure the standards of undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum with adequate focus on PV. Furthermore, ICMR should allocate funds to establish PV advanced training centers and outpatient departments in hospitals to cater to patient queries of drug safety and management of ADRs. Financial support and sponsorship Nil. Conflicts of interest There are no conflicts of interest.