Background: The safety of medications is of utmost concern for public health. In developed countries, adverse drug reaction reporting systems are well established, but in low-income and middle-income countries such as Pakistan, these are... more
Background: The safety of medications is of utmost concern for public health. In developed countries, adverse drug reaction reporting systems are well established, but in low-income and middle-income countries such as Pakistan, these are under-developed and ignored. The objective of this qualitative survey was to explore the adverse drug reaction reporting practices by health care professionals of Karachi, Pakistan. Materials & Methods: Fifteen health care professionals (HCPs), including physicians, nurses and pharmacists from public, semi-private and private tertiary care hospitals were selected using purposive and snowball sampling for semi-structured interviews. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. Results: The results showed that almost all HCPs have a good understanding of ADR, but did not know the procedures of ADR reporting to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). Usually, the ADR was manually reporte...
