JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Spontaneous reporting of suspected Adverse drug reaction (ADR) is central to monitoring post-licensure medication safety. Underreporting by health professionals is highly prevalent across the world. Little is known about how community pharmacists (CPs) recognises and report to surveillance systems in Australia.

Objective:

Explore the perceptions of CPs towards pharmacovigilance (PV) and identify factors associated with ADR reporting to help inform future interventions designed to improve ADR underreporting.

Methods:

A qualitative study with individual interviews was conducted with 12 CP’s working across Victoria, Australia between April 2022 and May 2022. A semi-structured interview guide was used to identify experienced barriers and facilitators to ADR reporting. Data was analysed following thematic analysis. Themes within barriers and facilitators were aligned with the Task-Technology Fit (TTF) framework.

Results:

Lack of knowledge was a key driver in low awareness to PV or reporting systems and work environment/ resources were key drivers in the lack of time to report by CPs in Australia. To facilitate the ADR reporting process, multifaceted digital reporting systems should be developed within the pharmacist workflow, utilising auto-population features with integrated ADR report feedback systems.

Conclusions:

In contrast to previous studies and prior interventions that attempted to address ADR underreporting, we theorise that it is not the end-users (CPs) that need behavioural change through more enticements or enforcement, but rather that the work practices and technologies that support their work need to be altered. Understanding the nature of “lack of time to report” may serve useful to design more targeted interventions strategies, the first relating to the organisational/workplace structure and the later, operational/ IT infrastructure. Implementing new digital technologies such as mobile apps and artificial intelligence supporting both active and passive surveillance present as opportunity to empower consumer reporting and reducing CPs workload.