HealthUnlocked is working with the University of Manchester and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) to undertake a study to examine how to improve monitoring of drug side effects.
Whilst medications can be effective for many conditions, they are known to cause a wide range of side effects. In the United Kingdom, drug side effects are monitored by the MHRA via a scheme called the Yellow Card system. This scheme allows health care professionals and members of the public to report suspected drug side effects. However, there are still a lot of side effects that go unreported in the UK. This is thought to be due to a lack of knowledge of the scheme and the difficulty in completing the forms.
The purpose of this study is to assess whether it is possible to identify drug side effects based on information posted on HealthUnlocked using automated computer programmes. If such computer systems could be developed, it would lead to an improvement in understanding about medication side effects and improve the safety of medicines.
This study will be completed by analysing 200 public posts from selected communities on HealthUnlocked that mention possible side effects. All information collected will be anonymised prior to leaving HealthUnlocked, so no identifiable information will be shared with the researchers and only content from users who have opted to share their anonymous health experience for research purposes will be used for this study. Users can opt out from this and any other research by changing the data sharing settings of their account here- healthunlocked.com/settings, or by contacting HealthUnlocked directly at support@healthunlocked.com.
This community is one of the 5 that will be involved in this research. We are very excited by the potential of this study and we hope that HealthUnlocked can be part of improving the way healthcare, like yours, is managed. If you have any questions, or would like to learn more about the study, don’t hesitate to get in touch at support@healthunlocked.com.
