The Structured Pharmacovigilance and Training Initiative (SPHAR-TI) was developed and implemented by the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria in 2016 in response to a short-term grant (B40396) awarded by the World Health Organization Special Programme for Research in Tropical Diseases.
Structured Pharmacovigilance and Training Initiative (SPHAR-TI)
The Structured Pharmacovigilance and Training Initiative (SPHAR-TI) was developed and implemented by the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria in 2016 in response to a short-term grant (B40396) awarded by the World Health Organization Special Programme for Research in Tropical Diseases. The grant aimed to improve the quality of adverse drug reporting in Nigeria.
Grant objectives include training healthcare workers in pharmacovigilance service delivery, printing and distributing adverse drug reporting tools and work aids, and building a network of healthcare workers for coordinated pharmacovigilance services in Nigeria.
The grant developed a structured, practical and effective model of providing pharmacovigilance training in Nigeria, trained pharmacists, doctors and nurses from health facilities treating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the six geopolitical regions in Nigeria, developed a training manual and tools for the ease of ADR reporting, built a network of health care workers for coordinated pharmacovigilance service delivery in Nigeria and built a strong collaborative framework with the government for ongoing pharmacovigilance service delivery.
The model increased the reporting of ADRs to NAFDAC by 197% leading to the adoption of SPHAR-TI by the Federal Government of Nigeria. In 2016, NAFDAC used SPHAR-TI to train 600 healthcare workers from ten states nationwide.