The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced the beginning of a new program called the Sentinel Initiative that will begin monitoring how medicines already in the marketplace are affecting people’s health.  As Gardiner Harris of the New York Times reports, the effort was accelerated after  widely-prescribed drugs like Vioxx were found to cause significant health problems.  Though encouraged, most experts believe it will be years before FDA can actually monitor side effects and potentially dangerous medicines effectively.  The agency will begin by testing drugs with recognized side effects, and then expand to watching new medicines.  Harris quotes a Harvard Medical School professor as saying that if the Sentinel Initiative succeeds, "the use of drugs and vaccines will be safer and better."  Read Harris here.  EH

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