FDA Eyes Social Media Data As Source For Adverse Event Reports

FDA is exploring the possibility of using social media to detect potential adverse events related to medical products as part of its bid to improve the adverse event reporting system. An FDA-collaborated study found there were nearly three times as many posts that resembled adverse events in Twitter data than reported to FDA by consumers. But an industry attorney said the possibility of having incomplete information from social media is pretty high and access to follow-up information may be difficult...