Prescrire's Médicaments en Questions: First results of a practice improvement programme.

In 2014, Prescrire launched a new distance-learning practice improve- ment programme for subscribers to our French edition, called M6dicaments en Questions (Medicines in Question).The aim of this programme is to help healthcare professionals take greater account of the harmful effects of drug treatments in their daily practice, manage adverse effects better, and help to reduce their inci- dence and severity. This programme is based on a reflexive approach: participants describe, analyse and compare their practices; update and improve their knowledge base; exchange ideas with other health professionals; and devel- op strategies for improvement. The results of the first session (2014-2015) have been encouraging: participants took greater account of adverse effects, exposed fewer patients to the harms of drugs that have an unfavourable harm-benefit balance, communicated better with other healthcare professionals, found it easier to discuss adverse effects with patients, and were encouraged to report adverse effects to the public pharmacovigilance system.