I’m pleased to announce the completion and release of a new short film, ’The WHO PIDM in Focus – Building a Global Community’. Since it was established in 1968, the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring (WHO PIDM) has sought to put medicines and vaccine safety at the heart of global healthcare. UMC’s role in education and training, the development of pharmacovigilance tools, and as the custodian of VigiBase – the WHO global database of adverse event reports for medicines and vaccines – is integral to the WHO PIDM. This film tells the story of WHO and UMC working side by side for close on 50 years to fulfil the mission of making medicines and vaccines safer globally and putting patient safety front and centre.
The film includes interviews with representatives from WHO and UMC, including UMC’s director Peter Hjelmström and Team Lead for Pharmacovigilance at WHO, Shanthi Pal. In her interview, Pal spoke about what she sees as one of the WHO PIDM’s major successes – the involvement of patients in medicines safety:
“If you don’t bring patients into the equation, patients who suffer an adverse event and who know best about where it hurts, then you can never get the full picture about this medicine or this vaccine.”
The film is part of a wider initiative to bring more attention to the work of the WHO PIDM and UMC’s role within it, particularly what we offer WHO PIDM members in terms of expertise, guidance, and support.
Learn more:
