Prof. Dr. Alessandro Ceschi, FEAPCCT
Medical and Scientific Director
The Institute of Pharmacological Sciences of Southern Switzerland (ISFSI), which was established in 2017, includes the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, with its clinical services including the Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacogenetics Unit advising other departments and healthcare professionals on safe drug use and promoting the rational use of medicines, the Regional Pharmacovigilance Centre, and a small Research Unit, and the Central Pharmacy Service, with the Hospital Pharmacy, Clinical Pharmacy, and Public Pharmacy.
The final goal of our activities is to personalise drug therapy by optimising beneficial effects while minimising adverse effects and costs.
Research activities have a focus on pharmacoepidemiology and improving drug safety of numerous medications - such as e.g. immune checkpoint inhibitors and benzodiazepines - and are performed in cooperation with other institutes, departments and units, in particular clinical pharmacology and toxicology departments of Swiss university hospitals.
We have expertise in using large pharmacovigilance databases such as the WHO global database of suspected adverse drug reactions. In 2018 we launched a parallel group randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of medication reconciliation at hospital admission on healthcare outcomes, which is now ongoing.
During the same year we performed a study on pediatric poisoning with chemical products in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. The study Swiss Drug Emergency Network (Swiss-DEN): a multicenter analysis of acute recreational substance toxicity, was started in 2017, and we were subsequently allowed to enter the Euro-DEN Plus study as an official centre among other 32 acute care facilities in 21 countries across Europe.
ABREOC supports our centre and ongoing projects are related to acute toxicity following use of cannabis products, MDMA, and pregabalin with heroin, as well as seizures as a complication of recreational drug use.
