Who are we?
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work, and are acceptably safe.
What is the Medicines Information Online Discussion about?
The MHRA holds a comprehensive database of Summaries of Products Characteristics (SPCs) and patient information leaflets (PILs) for all medicines licensed by the Agency. This is essentially a database of all medicines information authorised for use in the UK. A key part of our remit is provision of accurate, timely and authoritative information about medicines to healthcare professionals, patients and the public. As part of this we believe that we should look to make our definitive PILs and SPCs database available on the internet.
We have started this discussion to engage the general public, patients and healthcare professionals on whether we should put this database online, and if we do, what it should look like and how can it can be made useful. We are encouraging feedback through ideas and comments to create a collaborative conversation around the subject, which we will be taking part in as well.
Why is this discussion important?
We think it is important to have this discussion because currently information is made available electronically for only a small number of medicines and it is neither comprehensive nor necessarily up to date. We have a comprehensive and up to date database on all medicines authorised for use in the UK, which is a unique and vital resource. Making this resource available to all would offer the public the ability to read and compare drug information before prescription or purchase, and offer healthcare professionals a dependable and trusted SPCs catalogue.
What will happen to my ideas and comments after the discussion?
After the discussion, all ideas, comments, ratings and tags will be analysed and used to inform our work on the possible creation and design of an online PILs and SPCs database. We will use this site to feedback to participants on the decisions we make, and why we made them.
How can I get started?
To help you get involved in the discussion we have compiled some prompt statements to help you add an idea (see below).
The key issues we would like to hear about are:
- What is the desirability of providing PILs and SPCs online?
- Where do you currently look for information on medicines on the internet?
Assuming there is a desire for an online database:
- The is the impact of making this information available?
- Where do the public, patients and healthcare professionals expect to find this information (ie the MHRA website or another, if so which)?
- What sort of questions they might want to answer and how they might want to search the data (eg by product name or disease area)?
- The functionality they require in any online database.
Anything else I should think about?
In addition, much work has been recently undertaken to improve patient information leaflets (PILs). Do you have any feedback on these changes?