Quality standards are an integral part of the quality system. They are designed to help laboratories meet regulatory requirements, including local health regulations, and monitor laboratory functions, thereby ensuring laboratory safety and consistency of performance. A QMS provides a set of essential building blocks that help the lab fulfill predetermined quality objectives. A QMS manages the interacting processes and resources needed to provide value and realize results for laboratory customers and users

Pharmacovigilance (PV) relates directly to drug safety. It is the science of collection, detection, assessment, monitoring, and prevention of adverse effects with pharmaceutical products. In this course you will learn the steps and requirements for carrying out pharmacovigilance, you will differentiate between side effects, adverse effects and adverse events, the various parties involved in PV and their roles and data management. Pharmacovigilance is a great part of phase four and post marketing surveillance carried out by pharmaceutical companies and regulatory bodies to ensure the medications we are consuming are safe, being used at the right dose and right frequency. The data collected in the pursuit of pharmacovigilance is what pushes the development and advancement of medicines and devices.

The rational use of medicines requires that patients receive medications appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses that meet their own individual requirements for an adequate period of time, and at the lowest cost to them and their community. This course will take you through the development of clinical guidelines, how each member of the clinical team has a role to play in rational use of medicines, establishment of medicine and therapeutics committees and the importance of national essential medicines list. Rational use of medicines contributes greatly to ending the scourge of antimicrobial resistance.