Introducing Modern Computing Methods to the Moroccan Pharmacovigilance System

The long experience of the pharmacovigilance in Morocco was initiated since 1991 with the launch of the national centre of Pharmacovigilance (NCPV). In 1992, the NCPV acquired the world health organization (WHO) membership and thus the departure of the first African, Arabic and the 34th international pharmacovigilance system (PVS) in the world, in 2011 it was designed as the WHO collaborator. Today, and despite these achievements, the entire system is facing new challenges posed by the epidemiological and demographic transitions, where the cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity, the expansion of the Moroccan pharmaceutical industry with the national policy for promoting the market of generics and a healthcare system inadequately distributed in the country with an acute shortage among health professionals and lack of Computerization. Modern computing methods based on advanced statistical technics applied in artificial intelligence such as; machine learning, deep learning and related technologies are already in place in many other industries. They represent an opening door for the Moroccan pharmacovigilance system to progress from conventional system based on individual initiative to report cases to smart system capable of managing an active surveillance of drug side effect in real time, analysing big data coming from various data sources and consolidating a correct drug safety ecosystem. In this paper we present the Moroccan PVS in the context of the healthcare system, epidemiological and pharmaceutical industry characteristics and we discuss strategies of introducing modern computing methods to the system.