Understanding Drug Safety: Foundations of Pharmacovigilance
School of Professional StudiesLocation: Online | Length: 2 weeks | Program Start Date: November 2026
Develop in-demand skills that extend beyond theory into real-world application. Through a blend of live and self-paced online learning, you’ll gain insight into how pharmacovigilance protects patients, ensures compliance, and informs risk-benefit decisions in modern healthcare.
Program Details:
Time Needed
- Two weeks of online learning (synchronous and asynchronous)
- Approximately 8 total hours of instruction
Cost
- MCPHS alumni rate: $475 (Please email professionalstudies@mcphs.edu for your unique discount code)
- Early registration rate: $500 (ends 9/30)
- Standard rate: $550
Program Roadmap:
- Participate in the 4-module curriculum over two weeks, connecting with faculty and other professionals
- Gain the practical pharmacovigilance skills needed to understand, report, and act on drug safety information in real world settings
- Demonstrate foundational drug safety literacy and readiness, valuable for career advancement across the life science industry
- Develop foundational knowledge of pharmacovigilance concepts, terminology, and workflows
- Explain the role of pharmacovigilance in monitoring drug safety from clinical development through post-market surveillance
- Understand how organizations maintain compliance with agencies such as the FDA and EMA
- Recognize common pharmacovigilance scenarios and how safety teams respond
This course is designed for professionals seeking a clear, practical understanding of drug safety and pharmacovigilance, particularly those who interact with safety-related data, decisions, or compliance requirements but are not specialists in the field.
Our students are:
- Clinical operations and research professionals
- Medical affairs, commercial, and marketing professionals
- Quality, compliance, and manufacturing professionals
- Early career professionals in the life sciences
- Module 1: Introduction to Pharmacovigilance and the Drug Safety Landscape
- Module 2: Adverse Event Identification, Intake, and Reporting
- Module 3: Global Regulatory Expectations and Safety Compliance
- Module 4: Signal Detection, Risk-Benefit Assessment, and Real-World Application