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        Drug Safety and Availability

Safe Use Initiative

                        
                Safe Use Initiative - Current Projects
          Safe Use Initiative - Completed Projects
          Safe Use Initiative  - Extramural Research
          Proposals to FDA’s Safe Use Initiative Home
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          Drug Safety and Availability
          Safe Use InitiativeDrug Safety and Availability Safe Use Initiative
  			Collaborating to Reduce Preventable Harm from Medications
	
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    PrintToday, tens of millions of people in the United States depend on prescription and OTC medications to sustain their health—more than four billion prescriptions are written annually. Too many people, however, suffer unnecessary injuries, and some die as a result of preventable medication errors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) believes that many of these medication-related risks are manageable if parties committed to the safe use of medications work together.

The mission of the *Safe Use Initiative* is to create and facilitate public and private collaborations within the healthcare community. The goal of the *Safe Use Initiative* is to reduce preventable harm by identifying specific, preventable medication risks and developing, implementing and evaluating cross-sector interventions with partners who are committed to safe medication use.

Potential partners in Safe Use include:

Federal agencies
	Healthcare professionals and professional societies
	Pharmacies, hospitals, and other health care entities
	Patients, caregivers, consumers, and their representative organizationsThe Safe Use Initiative is one of three teams organizationally within Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement, or “PASE.”

**Through coordinated efforts, we can make significant improvements in the safe use of medications and reduce preventable harm from medication misuse, abuse, and errors.**

Proposals to FDA’s Safe Use Initiative
	FDA's Safe Use Initiative (PDF - 166 KB)Additional Resources

Drug Safety Communications
	Drug Safety Oversight Board Meetings: Public Summaries
	Postmarket Drug Safety Information for Patients and Providers
	Report a Problem to MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting ProgramResources For You

Professional Affairs and Stakeholder Engagement'New Findings in Patient Safety

**National Quality Forum (NQF) Releases****Anticoagulation Stewardship Playbook to Help Improve Patient Safety**
	More than 8 million people in the U.S. take anticoagulants, which work by decreasing the blood’s ability to clot. They are essential and life-saving for people with cardiac and vascular disorders, but have been identified as the most common cause of adverse drug events (ADEs) across various healthcare settings. The National Quality Forum (NQF), in partnership with the Anticoagulation Forum (AC Forum) and with funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has released Advancing Anticoagulation Stewardship: A Playbook, a new, publicly available guide to help healthcare organizations implement evidence-based strategies to promote patient safety in the use of anticoagulant medications.Spotlight

Safe Use Initiative - Extramural Research Update

                                                                                  Content current as of:
      08/30/2022
                  
                   
Regulated Product(s)
		 DrugsSafe Use Initiative                
                          

                        Safe Use Initiative - Current Projects
          Safe Use Initiative - Completed Projects
          Safe Use Initiative  - Extramural Research
          Proposals to FDA’s Safe Use Initiative
 
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