Safety at the center
This is not your traditional patient safety group, solely focused on implementing rules and regulations in the health care industry.
At least, that’s what the average person would think after leaving a conversation with two of AbbVie’s leaders in pharmacovigilance, or “drug safety” for the benefit of patients.
It could be because of the unusual career path of AbbVie’s head of pharmacovigilance and patient safety Linda Scarazzini, RPh, M.D., who went from chief medical resident at a prestigious university hospital to patient safety leader at the FDA before joining AbbVie.
It could be because of the colorful décor in the office of Fabio Lievano, M.D., AbbVie’s vice president of safety science: T-shirts from his favorite safety conferences tacked up on the wall, next to awards recognizing his work bringing vaccines to war zones.
Or, it could be the fact that these leaders are so passionate about keeping patients safe that they joined forces to write the book “Pharmacovigilance: A Practical Approach,” tailored to the next generation of safety scientists.
Whatever it is, both Scarazzini and Lievano have developed a cutting-edge patient safety group at AbbVie that goes far beyond compliance and instead places patient needs at the center.