As a child, Dr. Manpreet Oberoi watched her mother struggle with mental illness and the powerful psychiatric drugs prescribed to treat it.
"We would tell her doctors she wasn't feeling good from the medications, but it was dismissed or shrugged off," she said. "The experience stayed with me. And as I learned more about medicine, I realized it shouldn't just be about prescribing treatments. We should also focus on ensuring medications provide the greatest benefit while minimizing risks."
Dr. Manpreet Oberoi is working toward a career in pharmacovigilance, tracking and analyzing adverse drug reactions around the world. (Megan Morris/Schulich Medicine & Dentistry)
It was Oberoi's first introduction to drug safety and later inspired her to pursue a career in the emerging field.
She is among the first cohort of students in the drug safety and pharmacovigilance graduate program at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
The one-year, professional master's program is the only one of its kind in North America.
The world of drug safety is an increasingly complex one. Heightened mistrust in science, new types of targeted drug therapies and expanded distribution methods have underscored the need for drug surveillance and analysis.
"This is a time when fears around drug safety are high in the public's minds," said Dr. Michael Rieder, program director and professor in the departments of paediatrics, physiology and pharmacology and medicine.
"Our goal with the program is to provide a generation of professionals who can navigate this landscape." - Dr. Michael Rieder, Schulich professor and director of the drug safety and pharmacovigilance master's program
The course-based program includes a research project and four-month practicum placement with government, industry or hospital partners.
"We're addressing a big gap in training among health-care providers and scientists," said Rieder. "Historically, diagnosis has been seen as the doctrine and therapeutics just tag along, but with the thousands of drugs now available, that lack of knowledge becomes a major issue."
Drug safety learning 'truly multidisciplinary'
Oberoi brings a unique background into the mix. Born and raised in India, she completed medical school in Smolensk, Russia.
"Where I come from, the society is quite patriarchal," she said. "In Russia, I felt women were more empowered in day-to-day life, and I wanted to experience and develop myself in that environment."
Months before her graduation from the six-year program, the COVID-19 pandemic upended her studies. Oberoi and her peers were put into the medical workforce, as the country badly needed doctors on the frontlines.
"It was overwhelming to start my career amid such uncertainty, but it was also empowering," she said. "As we learned more about the virus, I learned how to bring those research findings into clinical practice; to be diligent about what I was bringing to patients."
After graduation, Oberoi continued working as a physician in India. She also participated in the pharmacovigilance program for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, a hands-on experience that renewed her interest in drug safety and gave her the push to pursue further training.
She says Schulich's new drug safety program is well structured, offering a wide range of topics from pharmacogenetics to law and policy. And she also appreciates the diverse perspectives shared by her classmates.
"Our cohort is truly multidisciplinary, so we're not just learning from professors, but also each other," she said.
Oberoi's sights are set on a career in pharmacovigilance, tracking and analyzing adverse drug reactions around the world.
She feels a strong sense of responsibility to patients like her mother, who play a direct role in making drugs safer.
"I consider awareness a big part of my future role; explaining this work to the public in a way that is comprehensive and understandable," she said.
