title: Perception of pharmacovigilance among doctors in a tertiary care hospital: influence of an interventional lecture.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the important pillars of an efficient pharmacovigilance system is contribution by healthcare professionals in the form of spontaneous reporting. This study was aimed at investigating the knowledge, attitude and practice of spontaneous ADR reporting among doctors in a teaching hospital in Pune, and to analyze the effect of an informative lecture about Pharmacovigilance on the same.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was an interventional study conducted among 220 doctors at a tertiary care teaching hospital, Pune. Each participant was explained the purpose of study and asked to fill in a questionnaire about their knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacovigilance. Only 80 of them attended the interventional lecture on Pharmacovigilance and again filled up the questionnaire after a period of one month from this intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Merely 7.5% of the participants knew ADR reporting system in India. Majority of the respondents (95%) knew that, as doctors, they could report ADRs but were unaware about the methodology to report (92.5%) which affected their practice of Pharmacovigilance. All (100%) the participants expressed that proper training should be provided to clinicians for ADR reporting & 81% felt ADR reporting should be made mandatory. Only 80 participants (36.4%) attended the interventional lecture which reflected a poor response. Intervention improved their (96%) knowledge about ADR reporting system and now majority of them (92%) agreed that all sort of ADRs should be reported (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attitude towards ADR reporting was positive but knowledge about ADR reporting system was inadequate among doctors working in a teaching hospital in Pune. Education helped in improving knowledge and had an impact on attitude of participants regarding pharmacovigilance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Medical College, Pune, India.
authors.forename: Dhara R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Sanghavi
authors.forename: Priti P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Dhande
authors.forename: Vijaya A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Pandit
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D060735:Pharmacovigilance; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D063128:Tertiary Health Care
keywords: Pharmacovigilance; doctors; intervention; reporting