ERROR 1
ERROR 1
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
ERROR 2
Password and Confirm password must match.
If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)
ERROR 2
ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.
FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have joined forces to launch the Sentinel Initiative—a national strategy to develop an electronic, early-warning system to detect problems with approved drugs and medical devices that are already on the market. The Sentinel System will be developed through public-private partnerships. It will make use of large databases, such as Medicare's data on medical claims and prescription drug use, as well as data from other sources that agree to participate. The long-term effort will "create a forum and an infrastructure that will enable FDA to gather information about medical products by posing targeted queries," Janet Woodcock, director of FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, said at a May 22 briefing. For example, FDA could query Medicare's large database to determine whether any patients had adverse reactions to a particular drug. The system could also reveal risks to particularly sensitive groups of people. A big part of the Sentinel project will be to develop best practices and validate methods "so that when we do these queries and analyses, we can all agree on what the results mean," Woodcock said.
Join the conversation
Contact the reporter
Submit a Letter to the Editor for publication
Engage with us on X