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Senior Citizen and Internet
iGuard Drug Safety Alert is Newest Reason Senior
Citizens, Caregivers Must Use Web
Provides patients & physicians with immediate,
personalized, free drug safety information
 Oct. 9, 2007 Almost weekly there is a new and
compelling reason why senior citizens or their caregivers should be
active on the Internet. One significant new tool to launch on the Web,
which promises potentially life-saving help to seniors, is iGuard. This
is a free service to access current information about the risk profile
of their medications and receive personal drug safety alerts.
Reinventing the way that drug safety information is
communicated, iGuard claims it is the nation's only patient-driven program that
provides timely, accurate and personalized drug safety information for
patients and their physicians.
iGuard enables consumers to take an active role in
managing their health through this free online service. To receive
personalized alerts, patients enroll online at www.iguard.org and follow
a simple series of steps to become part of a membership network.
Patients create a secure personalized iGuard
profile that includes questions about their demographics, medications,
medical history, and conditions that could impact their drug safety
risks.
Following completion of their profile, they are
immediately sent personalized risk ratings about the medications they
take, including interactions between drugs.
In addition, when an issue with a drug arises, such
as side-effect warnings, warnings from the manufacturer or a medical
journal, or changes in the prescription label, iGuard will send a drug
safety alert to patients and the physician or physicians they designated
in their profile.
 iGuard members will be asked to update their
profile on a quarterly basis. Should a serious adverse event be
suspected, iGuard will send a MedWatch form to the patient.
Patients are instructed to give the form to their
physician for completion. MedWatch is the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration's safety information and adverse event reporting program.
Physicians who suspect a serious adverse event associated with a drug
has occurred submit the forms to the FDA. Because the data are
ultimately reported to MedWatch by the patient's physician, iGuard is a
patient-driven, physician-reported system.
Quintiles Transnational Corp, which owns iGuard,
says it will pay for this free service by offering customized drug
safety studies, risk management programs, and other research
opportunities.
We are confident that these market opportunities
will cover the cost of our communication network and further our
knowledge of drug safety, the company says on its Website.
Reports of adverse reactions to drugs increasing
The number of serious side effects and deaths
reported to the FDA has more than doubled over an eight-year period,
according to report recently published in the Archives of Internal
Medicine (Vol. 167 No. 16, September 10, 2007). This, and the resulting
media coverage, has heightened physician and patient awareness about the
need for more immediate, accurate drug safety information.
People need immediate information
"iGuard puts the power of drug safety in the hands
of each American, right where it should be," says Dr. Hugo Stephenson,
iGuard's founder and president.
"Consumers don't want to be drug experts -- they
want a signal, an alarm, if something goes wrong. iGuard is the smoke
detector for patients. It's always working in the background collecting
data that can be used to identify safety signals, providing researchers
access to the de-identified iGuard database, and communicating research
findings back to patients based on the medications they are taking."
Stephenson, a medical doctor with a particular
interest in epidemiology and risk management, works closely with
patients, academics/government, pharmacists, physicians and the industry
to advance drug safety in the US, the company says.
An early pioneer in medical decision support, he is
an internationally renowned expert on drug safety research, having
previously led Quintiles' post- marketing and safety services division
prior to starting iGuard.
Alerting millions of Americans at heightened
risk
People taking multiple medications daily are at
greater risk for dangerous drug interactions that may cause serious and
even life threatening side effects. Millions of people are in this
category and senior citizens are especially vulnerable to this
phenomenon. iGuard provides a risk rating system to help people learn
about drug interactions and other dangerous effects.
Dr. Judith Jones, MD., Ph.D., President and CEO of
the Degge Group, Ltd., a drug safety research company, says, "Drug
safety is front and center on the public health radar screen, and iGuard
provides a unique, patient-centered solution in real-time."
Editors Notes:
About iGuard
iGuard is a wholly owned subsidiary of Quintiles
Transnational Corp. and is the fastest and easiest way for patients to
get information and safety updates on the drugs they are taking. This
drug safety monitoring program facilitates bi-directional exchange of
timely and relevant information, enabling patients to take an active
role in managing their health. iGuard maintains an efficient
communication channel where patients and health professionals can
monitor, evaluate and share information about drug risks and benefits.
Registration is free online at www.iguard.org.
About Quintiles
Quintiles Transnational Corp. is powering the next
generation of healthcare by providing a broad range of professional
services in drug development, financial partnering and commercialization
for the biotechnology and healthcare industries. With 19,000 employees
and offices in more than 50 countries, it is focused on providing
customer-centric solutions that are the gold standard of the industry.
For more information, please visit the company's Web site at
www.qtrn.com.
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