Uppsala Monitoring Centre

The Uppsala Monitoring Centre (the UMC), located in Uppsala, Sweden, is the field name for the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring. The UMC works by collecting, assessing and communicating information from member countries' national pharmacovigilance programs in regards to the benefits, harm, effectiveness and risks of drugs.

The work of the UMC is:
 * To co-ordinate the WHO Programme for International Drug Monitoring and its more than eighty member countries
 * To collect, assess and communicate information from member countries about the benefits, harms and risks of drugs and other substances used in medicine to improve patient therapy and public health worldwide
 * To collaborate with member countries in the development and practice of the science of pharmacovigilance.

The main focus and source of data in pharmacovigilance are reports of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) from healthcare providers and patients in member countries of the Programme.

Key Dates inThe WHO Programme

 * 1968 WHO Programme established. International ADR terminology and drug dictionary
 * 1969 Definition of ADR
 * 1978 Operations transferred to the UMC; setting-up of relational ADR database. Regular WHO Programme member meetings
 * 1981 Computerised version of WHO Drug Dictionary available to all
 * 1982 ATC classification coding of all medicinal products
 * 1985 International expert review panel created
 * 1991 On-line WHO database search programme available to national centres
 * 1991 Definitions of adverse event, side effect and causality assessment terms
 * 1993 Windows-based client server program for online database searches
 * 1993 Regular training and educational activities
 * 1994 Methodology for use of denominator data for calculation of ADR reporting rates
 * 1997 Knowledge-detection tool for automated signal detection (BCPNN)
 * 1997 Promotion of communication as a necessary discipline
 * 1998 Internet discussion group for national centres
 * 2001 Start of Vigibase Online project
 * 2002 New database system (Vigibase)
 * 2003 New Drug Dictionary with expanded data fields; agreement with IMS Health to increase information in DD
 * 2004 Pattern recognition using the BCPNN on health databases to find safety information.