Web-Based Patient-Reported Outcomes in Drug Safety and Risk ManagementChallenges and Opportunities?

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from web-based sources are becoming increasingly important, providing opportunities for industry and regulators to understand the benefits and risks of medicines in a real-world context. Although some guidance exists for the use of adverse event (AE) reports from company-sponsored social network sites, this does not cover non-company-sponsored sites. Additionally, there are concerns about the validity of data from social media sources. Techniques for the collection, analysis and reporting of safety data from patients should be defined, and guidelines agreed, to cover PROs and patient-reported adverse drug-related events from more organized sources of patient outcomes.