Measuring the preventability of adverse drug reactions in France: A 2015 overview

In recent years, the preventability of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) has gradually gained ground as an additional criterion for assessing drug-related risk, alongside seriousness, causality mechanism of action or frequency. However, the definition of preventability itself remains a concept that needs to be defined clearly so as to compare study results. After an overview of the current methods of measuring preventability, which include a French instrument, this work proposes a synthesis of the French studies assessing the preventability of ADRs over the last 30 years. Measuring preventability is important to classify ADRs as preventable/not preventable, but the ultimate aim remains to characterize these preventable ADRs, highlighting the clinical situations and drug classes related to the risk. It is then possible to provide targeted clinical actions to correct these situations and improve the clinical use of these drugs. Thus, assessing medical preventability should address the causes of ADRs and not the responsibility of healthcare professionals. Finally, certain ideas are proposed to improve the French scale and pursue its validation.