Drug interactions with Natural Health Products: A Discussion Paper (November 2001)

7.0 Conclusions

A number of issues have been identified throughout this document as the key challenges facing Health Canada, health care practitioners, researchers and consumers as they struggle to understand NHP/drug interactions. The authors of this report have identified the following priority needs:

• support for basic, clinical and epidemiological research about NHP/drug interactions
• communication with and education for health care practitioners (conventional and CAM), as well as for Canadian consumers about NHP/drug interactions
• the development of a Canadian NHP/drug interaction reporting system that meets the needs of health care practitioners, researchers, patients, policy makers, the NHP industry and the pharmaceutical industry. (This may involve changes to the current ADR reporting system or designing a new, separate system for reporting suspected NHP/drug interactions. In addition, discussion about who will be eligible to report suspected NHP/drug interactions and what information will be required as part of each report is necessary.)
• the development of an effective knowledge transfer system to facilitate the reporting of NHP/drug interactions and the ability of health care practitioners and patients to access information that has been reported in a reliable and timely manner

The workshop being hosted in Ottawa by the NHPD on January 10 and 11, 2002 will provide an opportunity to discuss these points in greater detail and to make recommendations about how they (and other issues identified at the meeting) may be addressed in a timely and cost-effective manner.