Institute for 21st Century Agoras

Dialogic Design Sociotechnologies for a Democratic Civitas

Menu
  • About Us
    • Executive Board
    • Staff
    • Agoras of the Global Village
      • DEMOSOPHIA Observatorium announced in Cyprus
      • Agoras of the Global Village Concept: ISSS 2003
      • Retrospective View of the Club of Rome Problematique
  • What We Do
    • Agora Reseach
      • Linking SDD as a methodology for Action Research
      • SDD in psychiatric therapy
    • Agora Training
      • 3rd International Facilitators Training School
      • Online University Credit Course, March 2011
    • Agora Tools
      • WebScope® Technology
      • Structured Dialogic Design CS I Software
      • Structured Dialogic Design CS II Software
        • SustainableFuturesStudent
  • Publications
    • Monograph series: A Social Systems Approach to Global Problems
      • V1: Strategic articulation of actions to cope with the huge challenges of our world today
    • The Talking Point
    • A Democratic Approach to Sustainable Futures
    • Co-Laboratories of Democracy (Harnessing Collective Wisdom)
    • Article Library
      • Publications from the AIO
      • Body Wisdom in Dialogue
  • Projects
    • Faith and Culture
      • Community Futures Planning
      • Indigenous leaders from the Americas and New Zealand
      • International Systems Institute — Systems Design
      • Urban Neighborhood Centers Alliance of Louisville (UNCAL)
      • Case Study Note: a church merger
      • Boundary Spanning Dialogue in Japan
    • Education and Workforce Training
      • Aligning for leadership inquiry _ Michigan Dept. Ed.
      • Great Lakes Area Regional Resource Center / Michigan Dept. Ed.
      • National Mental Health Association
      • NPSF amublatory Surgery
      • NPSF Drug Safety Perspectives
    • Civic Health and Wellness
      • Collaborative Solutions for Patient Assistance Programs
      • Future of Energy Efficiency in the Pacific Northwest
      • Invasive Species Control Program Planning
      • USDA Forest Service Priority Setting _ 2003
Menu

NPSF Drug Safety Perspectives

Recently there has been a lot of discussion in the media and the general public about the safety of drugs being advertised and sold in the market. The Food and Drug Administration is considering imposing new restrictions in terms of advertising and labeling of pharmaceutical products. Congressional committees are considering holding public hearings to address this very critical health issue affecting millions of consumers in the United States.

In the summer of 1999, following the publication by the Institute of Medicine of the report To Err is Human, the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) at the American Medical Association retained CWA Ltd. to coordinate the development of a National Leadership Agenda concerning the Safe and Appropriate Use of Medications. CWA Ltd. designed and facilitated a collaborative action-planning project, which brought together forty organizations and enabled the representatives of the stakeholders to converge to a collaborative action plan based on a two-day forum. This initiative was sponsored by a public-private partnership. The forum represented stakeholder interests throughout the pharmaceutical safety-chain.

The unprecedented cross section of stakeholders represented: healthcare clinicians, institutional providers, the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists, consumer advocates, regulators, policy makers, public health professionals, patients and public interest groups. The goals of the project were:

  • Appreciate the diversity of viewpoints regarding the complex problem situation of drug safety;
  • Create a shared understanding of the “anticipated challenges” that the community of stakeholders will face in improving the situation;
  • Build consensus on an action plan for addressing the “system of challenges;” and
  • Forge a commitment to collaborative leadership.

Following the completion of the project a very comprehensive slide show presentation was prepared by CWA for the purpose of disseminating the findings and recommendations of the forum to the community of stakeholders. One of the key points made in the slide presentation is that pharmaceutical safety is a perfect case of a “systemic misadventure,” namely it cannot be improved without the utilization of a truly systemic approach. While many stakeholders participating in the forum were aware of the systemic nature of the problem situation, there seems to be no commitment to collaborative leadership espousing the systemic thinking required by the situation. So the issue of drug safety will most likely not be resolved in the near future unless a systemic perspective is implemented.

The project and the forum generated support for a commitment to collaborative leadership. Unfortunately, this commitment was not sustainable for a variety of reasons, the primary one being the incapacity of the stakeholders to communicate and take collaborative actions across organizational boundaries.
In light of the fact that drug safety has reemerged as a major national issue we are posting the slide show for viewing by the interested parties. If you would like to view the slide show please click here.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Posts

Heraklion DEMOSCOPIO

The Case for Citizen Think-Tanks

A Digital Approach to Democratic Dialogue

Systemic Barriers to Effective Societal Response to Terrorism

The Irony of the Predicament of Detroit

US EPA Taking Democratic Steps Toward Community Involvement

Policy is more than a product of process; policy is process itself

Hyperpartisanism: a consequence of mismanaged complexity?

Elinor Ostrom’s Legacy of the Commons

Planet under Pressure

Democracy as the Means to Discover the New Narratives for Sustainable Futures

What would a “national dialogue infrastructure” look like?

Reconnecting with the Club of Rome

Welcome to the Institute for 21st Century Agoras

Convening from Complexity to Action

About the Agoras Institute

Founded in 2002 by Aleco Christakis and Kenneth Bausch, the Institute for 21st Century Agoras is a globally networked non-profit organization dedicated to the democratic transformation of society and culture.

Practice Centers

Americans for Indian Opportunity
CWA Limited
Demosophia
Dialogic Design Int’l
Future Worlds Center
OCADU Strategic Innovation Lab

Search Archives

© 2023 Institute for 21st Century Agoras | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme