Published papers

医薬品リスク管理計画(risk management plan:以下,RMP)は医薬品の適正使用推進とリスク最小化のために重要な情報である。本研究の目的は「平成30年度病院薬剤部門の現状調査」を用いて,RMPの利活用の実態を明らかにすることである。解析対象2,751施設のうちRMPを活用していたのは909施設(33.0%)であった。多変量解析の結果,病棟薬剤業務実施加算あり,患者の状態観察に基づく薬効・副作用の確認等にかなり取り組んでいる,医薬品の有効性・安全性情報の収集,管理および提供にかなり取り組んでいる,副作用等を一元管理している部門ありが,RMPの活用と正に関連しており,薬剤師1人当たりの病床数が多いことがRMPの活用と負に関連していた。本研究より,薬剤師1人当たりの病床数を低減させることによるファーマコビジランス業務の推進は,RMPの活用を介した医薬品安全使用に重要である。(著者抄録)

Background: The importance of pharmacovigilance in Japan is gradually being recognized. However, Japanese pharmacists' knowledge of and perspectives on pharmacovigilance have been examined only in some areas of Japan. Objective: The objective of this study was to clarify the knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting among hospital pharmacists in Japan. Setting: A questionnaire survey among Japanese hospital pharmacists. Method: The questionnaire was distributed to 48 028 pharmacists during a 3-month period between January and March 2017. Main Outcome Measure: The prevalence of hospital pharmacists who understood pharmacovigilance and the ADR reporting system. Results: Of the respondents (response rate; 9.9% = 4760/48 028), 21.9% were <30 years of age, 27.3% were >= 50 years of age, and 46.7% were women. In response to the question "Have you ever heard of the term 'pharmacovigilance'?," 12.4%, 33.8%, and 47.4% answered "I understand what it is," "I have heard of it, but I do not understand what it is," and "I do not know what it is," respectively. Pharmacists who understood the term "pharmacovigilance" were also more frequently acquainted with its associated terms and actions. And, 69.7% of respondents wished to acquire more information on pharmacovigilance and 50.9% did not have a personal history of ADR reporting. The most common reason for ADR nonreporting was "It was a well-known adverse drug reaction" (44.5%). Conclusions: Our results suggest that more aggressive promotion of pharmacovigilance and of the ADR reporting system among Japanese pharmacists is needed.

© 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction: The spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting system plays an important role in pharmacovigilance by providing information from clinical settings in the postmarketing environment. The Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report (JADER) database contains a portion of Japanese ADR reports, and no previous study has described the quality or characteristics of ADR reports in the JADER. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the characteristics of the JADER database and to evaluate the quality of ADR reports contained in the JADER using the documentation-grading scheme developed by the World Health Organization. Methods: Of 478 508 ADR reports in the JADER, the analysis set consisted of 395 091 reports meeting inclusion criteria. An analysis was carried out to evaluate the quality of the reports according to the type of report, the type of sender, and the qualification of the reporter. Annual changes in the number of reports from medical institutions submitted by pharmacists were compared with changes in the number submitted by physicians. Results: The distribution of documentation grade differed according to the type of report, the type of sender, and the qualification of the reporter. Regarding “medical institution reports”, the quality of reports was similar among qualification types, while the quality of reports submitted by physicians was higher for “company reports” and “study reports” (P <.0001, respectively). Conclusion: Our study showed that the quality of the ADR reports in the JADER differed among the type of report, the sender of the report, and the qualification of the reporter.

© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Background The quality of adverse drug reaction reports can have a strong influence on the causality assessment or the detection of safety signals. Various methods have been used to evaluate the quality of adverse drug reaction reports. Objective We used the vigiGrade completeness score to evaluate the quality of the Japanese adverse drug event report database (JADER). Methods Among all reports in the JADER (cases received by regulatory authorities from April 2004 to November 2018), 427,797 cases that did not meet the exclusion criteria were analyzed using vigiGrade. An report was considered a ‘well-documented’ report if the completeness score > 0.8. For each dimension, the proportion of incomplete information was calculated. Main outcome measure Proportion of ‘well-documented’ reports. Results A total of 211,774 (49.5%) cases were classified as ‘well-documented’ reports. When classified by sender, 6240 out of 8257 cases (75.6%) from medical institutions were ‘well-documented’, while 205,534 out of 419,540 cases (49.0%) from pharmaceutical companies were categorized as such. ‘Time-to-onset’ could not be calculated in 173,027 (41.2%) cases from the pharmaceutical companies and in 1228 (14.9%) cases from medical institutions. Conclusion In the JADER, the proportion of ‘well-documented’ adverse drug reaction reports from medical institutions was higher than that from pharmaceutical companies, and reports from medical institutions could help to clarify generated safety signals. We also found that more than 40% of the reports from pharmaceutical companies did not include information that is considered essential for the evaluation of any causal relationship between suspected drugs and adverse drug reactions, which could pose challenges to the detection of safety signals.

A total synthesis of (±)-lepadiformine A was accomplished through construction of the 1-azaspiro[4.5]decane skeleton by a sequential radical translocation-cyclization reaction.

Introduction Pharmacists are needed as members of oncology teams. The Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists (JSHP) conducts a nationwide survey annually to analyze the actual situation and generate fundamental information about hospital pharmacy practice in Japan. Using data from this large-scale survey, we described pharmacists’ involvement in cancer chemotherapy. We explored the factors related to the acceleration of pharmacists’ tasks or involvement in clinical practice, primarily in oncology. Methods Data were obtained from annual surveys conducted by JSHP from 2015 to 2020. All variables were expressed as categorical variables and tabulated. The Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were used to compare the categorical variables. The Cochran–Armitage trend test was used to identify significant trends. Results From 2015 to 2020, 22,362 responses were recorded. After applying the exclusion criteria, 20,906 were analyzed. The proportion of hospitals enrolling pharmacists with oncology-related certifications significantly increased in all hospitals providing cancer care. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that a smaller number of beds per pharmacist significantly correlated with additional fees for outpatient pharmacy services ( p = 0.0002 for trend). Conclusion Hospitals charging increased fees for outpatient oncology pharmacy services were associated with a smaller number of beds per pharmacist, regardless of hospital size. A balance between the number of beds and pharmacists, particularly certified oncology pharmacists, is crucial for safe and high-quality cancer treatment.

In this retrospective observational study, we aimed to investigate the potential of natural language processing (NLP) for drug repositioning by analyzing the preventive effects of cardioprotective drugs against anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity (AIC) using electronic medical records. We evaluated the effects of angiotensin II receptor blockers/angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ARB/ACEIs), beta-blockers (BBs), statins, and calcium channel blockers (CCBs) on AIC using signals extracted from clinical texts via NLP. The study included 2935 patients prescribed anthracyclines at a single hospital, with concomitant prescriptions of ARB/ACEIs, BBs, statins, and CCBs. Upon propensity score matching, groups with and without these medications were compared, and expressions suggestive of cardiotoxicity, extracted via NLP, were considered as the outcome. The hazard ratios for ARB/ACEIs, BBs, statins, and CCBs were 0.58 [95% CI: 0.38-0.88], 0.71 [95% CI: 0.35-1.44], 0.60 [95% CI 0.38-0.95], and 0.63 [95% CI: 0.45-0.88], respectively. ARB/ACEIs, statins, and CCBs significantly suppressed AIC, whereas BBs did not demonstrate statistical significance, possibly due to limited statistical power. NLP-extracted signals from clinical texts reflected the known effects of these medications, demonstrating the feasibility of NLP-based drug repositioning. Further investigation is needed to determine if similar results can be replicated using electronic medical records from other institutions.

This study assessed the effectiveness of natural language processing (NLP) in detecting adverse events (AEs) from anticancer agents by analyzing data from over 39,000 cancer patients. A specialized machine learning model identified known AEs from anticancer agents like capecitabine, oxaliplatin, and anthracyclines, revealing a significantly higher incidence in the treatment groups compared to non-users. While the NLP approach effectively detected most symptomatic AEs requiring manual review, it struggled with rarely documented conditions and commonly used clinical terms. Overall, the method shows promise for automated AE detection in medical records, particularly for symptoms without laboratory markers or diagnosis codes.

© The Author(s) 2018. Background: Limited data regarding knowledge and factors related to understanding the adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting system of health care professionals are available in Japan. Objective: The objective of this study was to identify factors related to understanding the ADR reporting system in Miyagi Cancer Center and to find ways to increase the number and quality of ADR reports. Methods: Self-administered questionnaire surveys were administered before and after the educational meeting among health care professionals who were working in our hospital during the study period. Subanalyses restricted to nurses were also performed. Main Outcome Measure: Understanding ADR reporting system among healthcare professionals. Results: The percentage of respondents who understood the ADR reporting system in the questionnaire after the educational meeting was significantly higher than that in the questionnaire before the educational meeting. In the questionnaire after the educational meeting, multivariate logistic regression analysis found that having over 30 years of practical experience (odds ratio [OR], 3.852; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.228-12.081 for 20-29 years, 7.695; 1.650-35.881 for over 30 years), being a physician (8.071; 1.923-33.878), being a pharmacist (18.357; 3.847-87.585), and participating in the educational meeting (5.111; 1.700-15.365) were factors associated with understanding the ADR reporting system. Multivariate logistic regression analysis of the questionnaire results before the educational meeting among nurses showed that working at outpatient departments (8.330; 3.008-23.069) was significantly and independently associated with understanding the ADR reporting system. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that many years of practical experience, profession (physicians, pharmacists), and educational interventions were associated with good understanding of the ADR reporting system among health care professionals.

Purpose: Spontaneous adverse drug reaction reporting is the foundation of postmarketing drug safety monitoring. The present study aimed to analyze and clarify the quality and characteristics of the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database (JADER) using the World Health Organization (WHO) documentation grading scheme and the vigiGrade completeness score. The characteristics of reports were described using both schemes simultaneously. The way of proper use of these two schemes was explored. Methods: The WHO documentation grading scheme and the vigiGrade completeness score were applied to the same dataset (JADER202001 dataset). Reports classified as high-quality under both assessment criteria were extracted, and the characteristics of these reports were analyzed. Results: Of the 607,361 adverse drug reaction reports analyzed, 52.8% were 'well-documented reports' with a vigiGrade completeness score >0.8. Under the WHO documentation grading scheme, 328,702 reports (54.1%) were Grade 2 and 5,178 (0.9%) were Grade 3 (including rechallenge information). Among well-documented Grade 3 reports, classified as the highest quality, a high proportion of the adverse drug reaction reports were related to disorders of hematopoietic function resulting from anticancer drugs. Because a high proportion of the reports with rechallenge information were for anticancer drugs as suspect drugs, the WHO documentation grading scheme tended to extract reports regarding anticancer drugs as high quality. Conclusions: We conclude that the two schemes need to be used appropriately, depending on the purpose of analysis, the target adverse drug reactions, and suspect drugs.