Uso da Análise dos Modos de Falha e seus Efeitos (FMEA) como ferramenta para mapear os riscos em um estudo clínico

Introduction: This study describes the application of the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a tool for risk management during clinical research to establish the treatment of patients simultaneously infected with HIV and tuberculosis. Objective: To demonstrate the importance of risk analysis associated with clinical trial protocols in safeguarding the participant and study data, and as a study’s quality standard. Method: Procedures demanded by the clinical protocol were detailed and then associated with failure modes based on the programmed visits of the participant to the study center. The failure modes were rated between 1 and 10 according to: Severity, Occurrence and Detectability, and the Risk Priority Number (RPN) was calculated by multiplying the three values. Results: In a panel of 25 procedures and 60 failure modes, 50% resulted in RPN > 120; six of which contained more than five failure modes. The highest risks were associated with the DOT strategy (RPN 294), blood collection (RPN 288), the Informed Consent Term (RPN 270) and participant data collection (RPN 240). Conclusions: The results demonstrate the importance of FMEA as a tool to assess risks in clinical studies, in line with the recommendations of international standardization organizations.