[Detection of side effects by systematic and programmed research].
The need for data on efficacy and rate of adverse reactions after the admission of drugs for common use has become obvious in recent years, in order to evaluate benefit and risk in the long run. Due to the lack of knowledge severe hazards were realized rather late in the past. To improve this unsatisfactory situation it will be useful to explore different ways to get a systematic registration of harmful reactions. None of the procedures known so far for this purpose have been proven to provide sufficient information when used single. In the future voluntary reporting, hospital monitoring and a drug surveillance program may be included in a cooperative system to discover the seldom and unforseen diasters by drugs as early as possible. Much effort will be necessary to reach this aim. One among other useful techniques is the procedure developed by the "Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program", which is discussed in some detail. It is thought to improve chances for the detection of certain associations between drug usage and health dangers in short-term as well as long-term treatments. These would allow for preventive measures. It has to be stressed, however, that protection cannot be expected for every event but is limited at least to the drugs monitored and to the hazards recognised.