Medicines and patient pathways glossary

Core terms

These concise definitions are general orientation, not clinical guidance.

• Clinical trial — a planned study in people designed to answer defined health questions under an approved protocol.
• Regulatory review — an authority's assessment of evidence on quality, safety and effectiveness for an intended use.
• Pharmacovigilance — ongoing detection, assessment and prevention of medicine-related risks after authorization.
• Generic medicine — a product authorized against an appropriate reference product under applicable standards.
• Drug shortage — a situation in which available supply cannot meet expected demand in a market.

Reading health information well

Check who produced the information, when it was updated, which population the evidence covers and whether benefits and harms are presented together.