|  Pharmacovigilance is a growing and expanding discipline with much associated
and sometimes confusing terminology. This new dictionary provides definitions
or descriptions, some with references, for over 3,100 abbreviations,
terms and phrases relevant to the subject. It provides good coverage
and explanations of day-to-day pharmacovigilance terms and there is a
comprehensive listing of EU and Food and Drug Administration regulations,
directives and terminology together with International Committee on Harmonisation
documents. Some country-specific abbreviations and terms are also included.
A number of adverse drug reaction (ADR) terms are also described but,
since ADRs mimic a vast range of diseases, symptoms and signs, this is
of relatively limited value because it is not a medical dictionary or
textbook of medicine.
The numerous abbreviations and their meanings might be better separated
from the other terms because, for most, there is no further explanation.
Many are useful but some appear rather odd or perhaps company- or regulatory
agency-specific, eg, CCS — Clinical Coding Specialist, HAR — Herbal
Adverse Reaction, HL7 — Health Level 7, HSRC — Human Subjects
Review Committee, and SRPF — Spontaneous Report Pregnancy Form.
The size of the print is also small.
Overall, this is a useful reference source for anyone working in pharmacovigilance
to have available and for the non-specialist it provides some good concise
explanations with pointers to further reading. However, it probably tries
to do too many different things, being a dictionary of pharmacovigilance
terms, a dictionary of the more important ADRs and a list of abbreviations.
John C. C. Talbot
Correction
The price of the ‘Dictionary of pharmacovigilance’ is £65, not as stated. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal