Use of Public Health Surveillance Models in the French National Health System Database

Overview

Public health surveillance models, previously used for the ongoing detection of occurrence of rare events, could be used to reinforce existing pharmacovigilance systems. These models have not been previously used for Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) detection in medico-administrative databases. DABISURV research project focuses on a new anticoagulant therapy, dabigatran, launched recently on the French market for atrial fibrillation (AF). This drug is at high risk for severe ADR and requires thus careful pharmacovigilance monitoring. Primary objective is to compare the results of ongoing surveillance models to detect hemorrhages or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) associated with dabigatran, with the results obtained from the analysis of a cohort of patients with AF under the same treatment.

DABISURV study consists in an analyze of a cohort of patients with AF who have received at least one prescription Vitamin K Antagonists (VKA) - reference group - or of dabigatran in the French National Health Insurance System. The uptake of dabigatran is followed for detecting hemorrhagic events or AMI associated with this molecule among first users. The ability to detect quickly substantial ADR of new drugs is of critical importance to public health in order to facilitate timely public health response. If the public health surveillance models are found useful for this topic, then semi-automated procedures would be needed to detect ADR associated with new generation anticoagulants in medico-administrative databases. If the public health surveillance models are found not useful for the detection of ADR, the cohort study itself will provide essential data on the safety profile of dabigatran.

Conditions