Drug Safety Matters

#46 Protecting the health ecosystem – Valentina Giunchi & Joe Mitchell

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 09:00:00 +0200

Pharmacovigilance has traditionally focused on the patient at the receiving end of a medicine. But what happens to medicines once they leave the body? In this episode, Valentina Giunchi and Joe Mitchell unpack the emerging field of ecopharmacovigilance and explore how the One Health approach is reshaping the way we think about medicine safety across human, animal, and environmental systems.

Tune in to find out:

Where in the environment pharmaceutical residues are turning up, and why this should be on every pharmacovigilance scientist's radar
How the dramatic collapse of India's vulture populations in the early 2000s speaks to the importance of the One Health approach
Practical solutions, from smarter prescribing and greener pharmaceuticals to take-back schemes for unused medicines, that can help curb pharmaceutical pollution.

Want to know more?

For a deep dive into ecopharmacovigilance, the following references provide foundational information on the topic in pharmacovigilance, most of them penned by Professor Giampaolo Velo, who coined the term:

The revised Erice declaration for the inclusion of environmental issues in pharmacovigilance
A book chapter on ecopharmacovigilance in the 2017 SpringerLink book “Pharmacovigilance”, featuring our very own Ralph Edwards and Marie Lindquist as editors
A paper summarising the main concepts in ecopharmacovigilance and pharmaceutical pollution

A paper with Valentina Giunchi as a co-author on environmental sustainability as an essential component of rational medicine use.

A recent paper with Joe Mitchell as a co-author, using the One Health approach to investigate pharmacovigilance database reports on antimicrobial resistance.

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About UMC
Uppsala Monitoring Centre promotes safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.

#45 How to perform better disproportionality analyses – Michele Fusaroli & Eugene van Puijenbroek

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:00:00 +0100

Drug Safety Matters

#46 Protecting the health ecosystem – Valentina Giunchi & Joe Mitchell

#45 How to perform better disproportionality analyses – Michele Fusaroli & Eugene van Puijenbroek

#44 Rethinking medical device safety, part 2 – Omar Aimer

#43 Rethinking medical device safety, part 1 – Omar Aimer

#42 Unpacking the WHO Global Smart Pharmacovigilance Strategy – Shanthi Pal

#41 How to use artificial intelligence in pharmacovigilance, part 2 – Niklas Norén

#40 How to use artificial intelligence in pharmacovigilance, part 1 – Niklas Norén

#39 Putting children first on Patient Safety Day – Angela Caro-Rojas

#38 Patient perspectives in PV: a fireside chat at the ISoP mid-year symposium

#37 Beyond numbers: quality in ADR reporting – Henry Zakumumpa

#36 Pregnancy-related pharmacovigilance – Levente Pápai, Lovisa Sandberg & Sara Vidlin

#35 Veterinary pharmacovigilance, part 2 – James Mount

#34 Veterinary pharmacovigilance, part 1 – James Mount

#33 Narrative fields and signal assessors, an exploratory study – Joana Félix and Alem Zekarias

#32 Pharmacovigilance in older adults – Giovanni Furlan

#31 A guide to reporting disproportionality analyses – Michele Fusaroli and Daniele Sartori

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Weeding out duplicates to better detect side effects

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Ensuring trust in AI/ML when used in pharmacovigilance

#30 Preventing and reporting medication errors – Rabat CC & UMC

#29 When medicines change our behaviour – Michele Fusaroli

#28 Catching black swans – François Montastruc

#27 When drugs damage the liver – Rita Baião

#26 What's trending in pharmacovigilance? – Angela Caro-Rojas

#25 A week in the name of medicines safety – part 2

#24 A week in the name of medicines safety – part 1

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – The colour of signals

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Empowering patients as partners

#23 Assessing safety in clinical trials – Marianne Lunzer & Sanja Prpić

#22 Reforming pharmacovigilance education – Michael Reumerman

#21 Unlocking the power of real-world data – Patrick Ryan

#20 The evidence for signals – Daniele Sartori

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Unmasking data in the COVID-19 vaccine era

#19 Lessons in pandemic pharmacovigilance – Elena Rocca

#18 The IDMP standards explained – Malin Fladvad & Olle Lagerlund

#17 Why we need vaccine surveillance systems – Madhava Balakrishnan

#16 How drug safety can help fight resistant bugs – Jean Marie Vianney Habarugira & Albert Figueras

#15 Safety of HIV medications – Henry Zakumumpa

#14 Advancing pharmacovigilance in Africa – Eleni Aklillu & Abbie Barry

#13 How to talk about risks – Alexandra Freeman

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Safety issues faced by refugee communities

#12 Improving signal detection with vigiGroup – Jim Barrett & Joe Mitchell

#11 Talking about vaccine safety – Anthony Cox & Daniel Salmon

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – The KIDs List

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Convincing the vaccine hesitant

#10 Tailoring drug therapy to your genes – Qun-Ying Yue

#9 Keeping vaccines safe – Helena Sköld & Annette Rudolph

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Substandard and falsified COVID-19 vaccines in the Americas

#8 How do we change behaviour around antimicrobial resistance?

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Into the infodemic

#7 The challenge of rare diseases – Christina Ström Möller

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Africa integral to evolution of pharmacogenomics research

#6 Intuition in pharmacovigilance – Eugene van Puijenbroek

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Patient's advocate

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Vaccination errors risk harm and damage trust

#5 Restoring invisible and abandoned trials – Peter Doshi

#4 Communicating science through film – Matthew Barwick

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Found in space

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – 10 critical steps for patient safety

#3 Navigating the plant names jungle – Bob Allkin

#2 Why we should listen to patients – Linda Härmark

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Philosophy of science meets patient safety

Uppsala Reports Long Reads – Ending the pregnant pause

#1 Fighting the fakes – Aline Plançon