Jo Barnes, Associate Professor in Herbal Medicines and Deputy Head of the School of Pharmacy, was awarded Fellowship of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) at the Society’s annual general meeting on October 14th 2020. The award reflects Jo’s contributions to ISoP, and to pharmacovigilance research, teaching and practice, over the last 25 years. Jo is the first New Zealand pharmacist to receive this award, and one of only two New Zealanders to be recognized in this way.
Currently, Jo has two leadership roles within ISoP. She is the founding chair of the ISoP special interest group (SIG) on Herbal and Traditional Medicines and, in this role, provides research and scientific leadership, and engages with a range of stakeholders, towards achieving the SIG’s goals [1]. A recent project undertaken by a subgroup of the SIG was to analyse VigiBase reports of liver adverse reactions associated with herbal medicines (VigiBase is the World Health Organization’s global database for adverse drug reactions (ADRs) maintained by the Uppsala Monitoring Centre in Sweden) [2].
In 2020, Jo became the new lead for the Western Pacific chapter of ISoP and recently organized a virtual meeting on Covid-19 and Pharmacovigilance in the Western Pacific region in the run up to World Patient Safety Day (September 17, 2020). The meeting included presentations from the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre/Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring, the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, and from colleagues in Tonga and The Philippines; Jo gave a presentation discussing efficacy and safety issues with herbal and traditional medicines being used/promoted for preventing and treating Covid-19.
Jo is also an active member of the Risk Communication and Women’s Medicines SIGs of ISoP. She has served as an elected member of the ISoP Executive Committee (2006-2009) and contributed to ISoP pharmacovigilance training courses, and to the development of joint ISoP-ISPE (International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology) guidelines for the submission of case reports on suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs), which aim to improve the quality of reporting of these in scientific journals.
References
- Barnes J. The International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) Special Interest Group on Herbal and Traditional Medicines: towards progress in pharmacovigilance for herbal and traditional medicines and other “natural health” products. Drug Safety 2020;43(7):619-622
- Van Hunsel F, van de Koppel S, Skalli S, Kuemmerle A, Teng L, Wang J-B, Barnes J on behalf of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance Herbal and Traditional Medicines Special Interest Group. Analysis of hepatobiliary disorder reports associated with the use of herbal medicines in the global suspected ADR database Vigibase. Frontiers in Pharmacology 06 November 2019; doi: 10.3389/fphar.2019.01326
Notes
Pharmacovigilance – drug safety – is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse drug reactions and other drug-related problems; it is a key public health function.
Contact email: j.barnes@auckland.ac.nz
