Adverse drug reactions' reporting in a Mexican hospital

Objectives To summarize the procedure for reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a Mexican hospital, with the purpose of promoting and facilitating the report of ADRs by the heath team. We outline the relevance of pharmacists in performing these activities in Mexican hospitals. Methods A pharmacovigilance study was carried out following the establishment of the Pharmacovigilance Unit of a Mexican hospital on January 2014 through March 2019. Key findings There is an undernotification rate of ADRs, since only 137 ADRs were notified in a five-year period, mostly by biopharmaceutical chemists holding bachelor's degrees that were acting as pharmacists. Conclusions To improve the safety of medications, it is necessary to improve ADR notifications in Mexico's health system. One important step in this direction is to establish a Pharmacy degree with training for promoting and performing ADR notifications.