FDA and ISMP working together help consumers prevent errors
To reach as many consumers as possible, FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has formally strengthened its relationship with ISMP so the two agencies can work together to provide consumers with information on how to use medicines safely.
by Michael R. Cohen, R.Ph.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the organization I work for, the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), have long shared a common goal of helping consumers prevent medication errors. Now, to reach as many consumers as possible, FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has formally strengthened its relationship with ISMP so the two agencies can work together to provide consumers with information on how to use medicines safely.
More recently, a similar situation developed when ISMP and FDA were alerted to a tragedy involving a little boy who swallowed a drug patch containing fentanyl, a powerful narcotic that's applied to the skin. The little boy found the patch while visiting his great grandmother, who was staying at a nursing home. The patch was somehow left in reach of the child when the person applying a fresh patch failed to properly discard the used one. The used patch contained enough drug to be lethal after the boy swallowed it. Both FDA and ISMP alerted health professionals and the public through widely disseminated national safety alerts.
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