For all their benefits, medical treatments designed to help people can also be harmful or fatal. It's estimated that around 2.5 million people die this way each year. So if any kind of medicine makes someone unwell, they or their doctor should report it. Those reports, from nearly every country in the world, go to the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) in Sweden.In almost two decades as the Centre's first full-time director, Professor Ivor Ralph Edwards (known as Ralph, pronounced 'Rafe') transformed it from a tiny operation with limited horizons into an internationally acclaimed scientific organization at the heart of the World Health Organization's Programme for International Drug Monitoring. He was then succeeded for another eleven years by the woman who became his wife, Dr Marie Lindquist.RARE EVENTS charts the growth of medicines safety science and practice through Ralph Edwards' personal journey and his experiences of leading UMC. From childhood and his early career as a distinguished young physician, the book follows a turbulent path through medicine, science, academia, education, research, management and leadership.This is the story of a passionate and dedicated pursuit of worldwide medicines safety, with an unerring focus on the welfare of patients. It traces the development of a new science from its early, faltering steps in the 1950s to a vital but little-known aspect of healthcare. The pioneering work of Ralph, Marie and their collaborators on every continent has protected the lives of millions of people. It may yet improve the lives of billions more.It's a story that touches the life of almost every person on Earth