VigiNetWork: a Community Pharmacists-Network on Pharmacovigilance in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto Region

Introduction: The literature shows that in Italy community pharmacists and patients are not active enough in reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) [1-3]. To improve these replies it has been set up VigiNetWork project (September 2020-September 2022): it is a multiregional (Emilia-Romagna and Veneto Region) pharmacovigilance (PV) project funded by the Italian Medicines Agency, joining pharmacists and citizens in pharmacovigilance activities within the community pharmacies. Objective: To develop a pharmacovigilance network among community pharmacies, to promote spontaneous ADRs reporting by pharmacists and patients and to improve pharmacists' knowledge on drug safety. Methods: The project has been promoted through social networks, webinars, local newspapers, and the Category Professional Associations. An information leaflet explaining its characteristics, a free access to two e-learning courses and a personal access to a website (www.vigirete.it) have been made available to enrolled pharmacists. A similar leaflet has been developed for patients. To evaluate the effectiveness of VigiNetWork we assessed the number of enrolled community pharmacies/pharmacists and of ADR reports submitted by them, their participation to e-learning courses and their visits to the website. Results: From September 2020 to March 2022 a total of 669 and 371 community pharmacies were enrolled respectively in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto Region (Table 1). A total of 339 and 516 (about 90% of total reports from community pharmacists) ADR reports were submitted from the pharmacists of VigiNetWork respectively in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto Region and an increase in comparison to the previous 18 months was observed. The impact of the project in patient reporting was presumed, but not assessable. In our study period 40% and 58% of enrolled pharmacists registered for distance learning courses respectively in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto Region, even if only about 5% of them completed the training in both Regions. The website reached 2113 (86% of enrolled pharmacists) unique visitors.Conclusion: Our project showed a great attention of community pharmacists to PV, increased also due to COVID-19 pandemic. The total number of submitted reports, even if limited, represented almost the totality of all reports from community pharmacists in both Regions and their interest in our website contents was appreciable. More efforts could be done to continue these activities in daily practice.