Training workshop in computer-assisted drug registration software, SIAMED

Eight countries in the African Region benefited from a training workshop on computer-assisted drug registration, SIAMED, which was held in Geneva from 21 to 28 November 2001. The workshop was organized for countries which have succeeded in the use of SIAMED. National officers from eight drug regulatory authorities participated in this training.

The first week of training was for participants from English-speaking countries (South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda) while the second week was for those from the French-speaking countries (Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Tunisia). It was highly participatory with each participant working on a computer with country data and sharing experiences among themselves. Two participants from Kosovo participated in the workshop during the first week on an observatory basis since SIAMED is not yet operational in their country.

The course had a very positive impact on the users and providers of the software. Participants shared their experiences especially on common problems encountered with the use of SIAMED. This gave WHO useful feedback on how to move forward with this drug registration software.

The WHO has over the years introduced SIAMED software to facilitate the process of drug registration. SIAMED is an important tool in the quality assurance programme of Drug Regulatory Authorities. There has been an increased demand from countries for SIAMED. It should be noted that SIAMED is useful only where there is already a well set up manual drug registration system in place.