Society expects pharmacoepidemiology to deliver rapid answers on whether available drugs are safe, and whether they are used optimally and economically.‘That is what they need, that is what they are paying for and that is what the public demands’, said Dr Michael Rawlins from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. The question of how pharmacoepidemiologists should respond to this challenge was discussed by Dr Brian Strom from the University of Pennsylvania, US, at the 10th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology [Stockholm, Sweden; Aug 1994].