Educational Resources on Drug Safety in Pregnancy and Early Life: The Canadian Mother-Child Initiative on Drug Safety in Pregnancy and Childhood (CAMCCO)

Medication use during pregnancy, lactation and early childhood remains one of the least studied and most consequential - areas of pharmacology. More than 80% of pregnant women take at least one medication, yet most drugs reach the market with little or no human safety data in this population. The result is a persistent evidence gap that exposes mothers, fetuses, infants and children to avoidable risk.The Canadian Mother-Child Initiative on Drug Safety in Pregnancy and Childhood (CAMCCO) is a CIHR-supported national training platform (CAMCCO-L) bringing together leading Canadian and international researchers, clinicians, patient partners and trainees to build transdisciplinary capacity in perinatal and paediatric pharmacoepidemiology. CAMCCO-L delivers a structured curriculum, providing comprehensive training in pharmacoepidemiology, machine learning applications, and drug safety during pregnancy. During the weeklong in-person event, the International Summer School on Medicines, this foundation is put into practice alongside expert mentorship, patient-partner co-creation, and joint bursary support, including dedicated awards for trainees from Indigenous and other underrepresented communities.This Research Topic curates the first open-access educational resource produced by CAMCCO. It combines a foundational editorial, a description of the CAMCCO-L training platform and Summer School, and a series of teaching case studies on landmark perinatal drug safety questions (paroxetine, isotretinoin, codeine in lactation, valproate). The collection is designed to serve as a teaching reference for pharmacy, medicine, epidemiology and public-health programs worldwide, and as a model for how international training networks can disseminate transdisciplinary skills in medicines development and drug safety assessment.This Research Topic is structured as a recurring collection, with each cycle aligned to the annual CAMCCO Summer School on Medicines. Topic editors: Anick Bérard, Denis DeBlois Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81461/educational-resources-on-drug-safety-in-pregnancy-and-early-life-the-canadian-mother-child-initiative-on-drug-safety-in-pregnancy-and-childhood-camcco