We have enough information to have an idea about who is reporting amongst consumers. For example, both in Canada and internationally, it's known that women are more likely to report than men. They report on their own behalf and they report on behalf of family members and so on.
An obvious strategy would be to focus on women--where women get information, organizations that women belong to and so on--to raise awareness about ADR reporting and about their opportunity to do so.
We also think that community health centres are a venue through which information about ADR reporting should be placed and that patients who walk into a community health centre should basically be approached about adverse side effects.
The MedEffect website that Health Canada established is very, very good for people who are able to use the Internet, but the reporting form is atrocious. It's horrible. It is not consumer friendly. Even if people are prepared to report online, they are so unlikely to use that reporting form.
Most people, in fact, will not use the Internet to report. They're more likely to report on the telephone.
The last thing I want to say is that PharmaWatch has adverse drug reaction reports from consumers that we are unable to give to Health Canada because of the privacy legislation. If we're collecting information from consumers, this is where it stops. It's because Health Canada will not accept information that is anonymous. They have to have a patient identifier. This is a discouragement to a lot of consumers who don't want their personal information known.