SAFEGUARD

portrait of Professor Miriam Sturkenboom

Prof. Miriam Sturkenboom

Scientific Coordinator of SAFEGUARD, based at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Research field

Drug Safety, Diabetes

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Who?

“I want to make sure that harmful pharmaceuticals are withdrawn from the market as quickly as possible”, says Miriam Sturkenboom, Professor of Medical Informatics at Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Sturkenboom uses existing clinical databases to obtain information on drug safety.

Why?

At least 180 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. Many of them are treated with blood glucose-lowering drugs. The long-term safety of these drugs is unknown. SAFEGUARD aims to develop a decision-making model to assist clinicians in safer treatment choices.

What?

Diabetes patients are often treated with drugs that reduce blood glucose levels. These pharmaceuticals halt the progression of the disease. The aim of SAFEGUARD is to determine the long-term safety of the drugs. The project integrates information from various sources, including the medical literature and large clinical databases.

How?

SAFEGUARD is the largest existing project for the safety evaluation of diabetes drugs. SAFEGUARD brings together diabetes experts, clinicians, pharmacologists, and statisticians from several European countries. These professionals analyse anonymous clinical data from almost 2 million European and American diabetes patients.