The sources of drug safety alerts used by the respondents "were numerous, and there was no one universal source, which suggests that the safety information delivery is not done so systematically," Dr. Shaw said. The only characteristic of survey respondents associated with better knowledge of AED safety alerts was treating more epilepsy patients per year.
"We feel that a better system of doing risk notification may be warranted," she concluded. "In fact, when we asked the survey respondents, less than 5% of them wanted to continue the current system the way it is."
Most survey respondents preferred implementing a formal warning process via specialty organizations or e-mails of product insert warnings.
Dr. Shaw said that she had no relevant financial conflicts to disclose.