Chicago, IL - On June 10-11, 1999, the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) will convene a workshop in Washington, DC to design and build consensus around a collaborative action plan to promote pharmaceutical safety. Fifty opinion leaders will participate, representing five key stakeholder groups that can make a difference - the FDA & Government, Medicine & Health Care Practitioners, Pharmacists, Patients & Public Interest Groups, and the Pharmaceutical Industry.
"Each of these groups is working to assure pharmaceutical safety every day. But until all stakeholders in the pharmaceutical safety chain begin to align our strategies and work collaboratively, our efforts will not reach their full potential to maximize benefit and reduce risk and harm to patients," says Eleanor Vogt, RPh, PhD, Senior Fellow of the NPSF. "This workshop provides a neutral forum to leverage the discussion about underlying issues that keep the community from working together to advance safety."
Expected outcomes of this workshop include a collaborative action plan to be released this summer for a pharmaceutical safety initiative. The plan will incorporate the group consensus on the strengths and vulnerabilities of the system, the roles and responsibilities of the major players in the pharmaceutical chain, the existing tools and resources, and the gaps that need to be filled to responsibly address medication safety issues. It will serve as an action agenda for the work of the community as well as the NPSF.
This project is made possible by a public/private partnership reflected in a major grant from Pfizer Inc with additional support from Bristol-Myers Squibb Research Institute, CVS Drug Stores, DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company, the US Food and Drug Administration, the Warner-Lambert company and Janssen Pharmaceutica.
Founded in 1997 by the American Medical Association, CNA HealthPro, 3M, and other partners, the National Patient Safety Foundation is an independent, nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to the measurable improvement of patient safety in the delivery of health care. The NPSF has formed a unique partnership of health care clinicians, institutional providers, health product manufacturers, researchers, legal advisors, consumer advocates, regulators, and policy makers among its board of directors. Working collaboratively with its broad base of constituents, the NPSF is leading the patient safety movement by raising awareness, building a knowledge base, creating a forum for sharing that knowledge, and facilitating the implementation of practices that improve patient safety.