Tag Archive for: Side

Suspect you have experienced a side effect or incident from a healthcare product? Submit a Yellow Card report to improve safety for everyone

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The eighth annual #MedSafetyWeek campaign has today (6 November 2023) been launched by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Part of a global campaign involving 88 countries, the initiative runs from 6-12 November and aims to improve patient safety by encouraging reporting of any suspected side effects from medicines and adverse incidents associated with medical devices.

With this year’s theme being ‘Who can report?’, the campaign focuses on the key role that every patient, carer and healthcare professional has in reporting suspected side effects and adverse incidents with medical devices, and the positive impact this can have on patient safety. You don’t have to prove that the healthcare product caused the side effect or incident – just a suspicion is enough for you to submit a report.

This year’s campaign consists of an international collaboration involving 100 organisations spanning across 88 countries that operate their own national patient safety monitoring systems like the MHRA Yellow Card scheme. The purpose of safety monitoring is to gain information about new side effects and adverse incidents, to find out more about known ones, and, most importantly, to ensure the safest use of medicines and medical devices.

All healthcare products carry a risk of causing adverse reactions or incidents. The Yellow Card scheme is one of several robust measures used by the MHRA to continuously monitor the safety of medicines and medical devices once in clinical use to ensure their benefits continue to outweigh any risks. All healthcare product regulators operate systems to detect and analyse adverse reactions and incidents.

It is important that everyone submits a report to the Yellow Card scheme as soon as they suspect a side effect from a medicine or adverse incident associated with a medical device. This ensures that actions to reduce harm are based on the best available evidence and can improve safety for as many people as possible.

Dr Alison Cave, MHRA Chief Safety Officer, said:

“Every report made to the MHRA Yellow Card scheme counts. Yellow Card reports are vital in building more knowledge and understanding about the potential risks of…

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A sneak preview of the first ever international Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre (NSTDC) and the training activities planned to start in October 2023 was given today during a side event held at the margins of the 67th IAEA General Conference

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A sneak preview of the first ever international Nuclear Security Training and Demonstration Centre (NSTDC) and the training activities planned to start in October 2023 was given today during a side event held at the margins of the 67th IAEA General Conference.  

Lydie Evrard, IAEA Deputy Director General and Head of the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security, highlighted the unique nature of the new IAEA facility, noting that “the NSTDC is built to respond to growing requests by countries for capacity building in the field of nuclear security that could not be met elsewhere.”  

“The IAEA has developed a training programme that will complement the existing national and international mechanisms of nuclear security capacity building,” said in her remarks.  

The NSTDC is housed in a new multipurpose building (MPB) located at the IAEA’s laboratories in Seibersdorf, 30 km south of Vienna, Austria. The MPB construction work started in July 2021, after the Director General of the IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi, broke ground for the new facility. 

Under the NSTDC training programme, there are currently 23 training courses and workshops. All of them address training needs in the area of physical protection of nuclear and other radioactive material and associated facilities; and in the area of detection and response to criminal or intentional unauthorized acts involving or directed at nuclear or other radioactive material, associated facilities or associated activities.  

Considering the IAEA work for cancer care, the NSTDC training programme includes a course for countries anticipating in or planning to join the Rays of Hope titled “Introduction to life cycle security of radioactive material and associated facilities in cancer care”. The course aims to familiarize participants with key considerations towards ensuring life cycle security and sustainability of radioactive material and associated facilities used for cancer care, including information and computer security aspects of nuclear security. 

“The NSTDC is a modern, specialized training facility, supported by state-of-the-art technical infrastructure,” said Marina Labyntseva, Head of the Education and…

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Cyberweapon manufacturers plot to stay on the right side of US

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In the summer of 2019, as Paragon Solutions was building one the world’s most potent cyberweapons, the company made a prescient decision: before courting a single customer, best get the Americans on side.

The Israeli start-up had watched local rival NSO Group, makers of the controversial Pegasus spyware, fall foul of the Biden administration and be blacklisted in the US. So Paragon sought guidance from top American advisers, secured funding from US venture capital groups and eventually scored a marquee client that eludes its competition: the US government.

Interviews with half a dozen industry figures about the divergent paths of the two companies underline how the shadowy spyware industry is being reshaped around those friendly to American interests.

According to four of those people, the US Drug Enforcement and Administration Agency is among the top customers for Paragon’s signature product nicknamed Graphite.

The malware surreptitiously pierces the protections of modern smartphones and evades the encryption of messaging apps like Signal or WhatsApp, sometimes harvesting the data from cloud backups — much like Pegasus does.

Paragon was set up by Ehud Schneorson, the retired commander of Unit 8200, the Israeli army’s elite signals intelligence arm. According to people familiar with the company, which includes ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak on its board, has secured investment from two US-based venture capital firms, Battery Ventures and Red Dot.

Paragon, Barak, Battery Ventures and Red Dot declined to comment.

In 2019, even before work on Graphite had been completed, on advice from a retired senior Mossad official, Paragon hired DC-based WestExec Advisors, the influential advisory group staffed by ex-Obama White House officials including Michele Flournoy, Avril Haines and Antony Blinken. Ex-US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, was also consulted, people with knowledge of the advisory effort said. Shapiro declined to comment.

WestExec said it “advised Paragon on its strategic approach to the US and European markets, as well as the formulation of its industry-leading ethical commitments designed to ensure the appropriate use of its technology,” adding it was “proud…

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Marine veteran turns side gig into security company

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Casey Holliday used the GI Bill to earn a degree in computer network security. There was only one problem with that plan.

“I quickly realized I had no interest working in the IT field,” he said.

With his career plans in flux, Holliday opened a CrossFit gym and sold it after five years. While wondering what would come next, his mother asked him to work at a music festival as a bartender, an opportunity to make a little side cash.

Upon hearing about Holliday’s background in the Marine Corps, where Holliday served two combat tours in Iraq before leaving the military in 2009, the festival manager wanted to pick Holliday’s brain about — of all things — security. But of the boots-on-the-ground event kind.

“The owner of the property came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you’re a Marine, can you help us with this security plan?’” Holliday said. “I love looking at battlefields and how am I gonna plan out an operation. And I drove through the property kind of like a post-battle analysis, essentially, of this event space. And I realized there were some major flaws, and let the guy know there are some things you could do pretty quickly to drastically improve the experience of your guests.”

Apparently the owner was impressed with what he heard.

“He was like, dude, you’re the guy you’re in charge now,” Holliday said. “I’ll pay you X dollars to go ahead and run this. And I’m like, oh, crap, OK.”

Holliday called about 15 friends who he served with who still lived in the Washington, D.C., area to help with the job. The event led to a side gig for Holliday and his crew, who continued doing similar events for about four years before they realized this could be more.

“For three or four years we were developing the platform and didn’t realize what it was, a passion project,” he said.

Hence, the humble beginnings of Battle Tested Security, a veteran-owned and operated company that was created because the founder and CEO accepted a bartending opportunity to make a few extra bucks.

The company became Holliday’s full-time commitment in 2019 and was starting to ramp up operations early in 2020 when the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As…

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