Filed under: mobile | Tags: Apps, IBM, mobile, novartis, pharma, technology, vodafone
A unique partnership between Vodafone, IBM, and Novartis has successfully launched a mobile health initiative that truly makes a difference in the treatment of malaria in remote areas of Tanzania. The SMS for Life program uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS (Short Messaging Service) technologies and intuitive web sites to track and manage the supply of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs and Quinine injectables, both of which are key to reducing the number of deaths from malaria.
During the first few weeks of the pilot, the number of health facilities with stock-outs in one district alone, was reduced by over 75 percent. The early success of the SMS for Life pilot project has the Tanzanian authorities interested in implementing the solution across the rest of the country. Tanzania has around 5,000 clinics, hospitals and dispensaries, but at any one time, as many as half could potentially be out of stock of anti-malarial drugs.
Kudos to all those involved for making this happen. We can only hope that other drug companies continue to think of new and innovative ways technology can improve patient outcomes.
Full press release below via IBM.
LONDON - 14 Dec 2009: A new solution developed by IBM (NYSE: IBM), Novartis and Vodafone with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is helping to save lives using everyday technology to improve the availability of anti-malarial drugs in remote areas of Tanzania
Called “SMS for Life,” the initiative uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS (Short Messaging Service) technologies and intuitive web sites to track and manage the supply of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs and Quinine injectables, both of which are key to reducing the number of deaths from malaria.
The mosquito-borne disease causes nearly one million deaths in Africa each year, mostly among pregnant women and young children, and many people die because they simply lack quick access to vital medication.
Tanzanian child helped by SMS for life program and IBM LotusLive.com cloud computing (Click on photo for print-quality version).
The concept of using text messaging to improve stock management of life-saving medicines was developed by pharmaceutical company Novartis and a team of international students taking part in IBM’s internship program, Extreme Blue. The team came up with SMS for Life, as it relies on simple technology and fosters self-sufficiency. IBM was tasked with managing the overall project and Vodafone was invited to develop and manage a system based on simple SMS messaging that would help ensure dispensaries did not run out of vital stock.
After visits to clinics, hospitals and dispensaries across Tanzania, IBM, Novartis and Vodafone initiated a five-month pilot of the SMS for Life solution, covering 135 villages and over a million people in different geographic locations across Tanzania.
Vodafone, together with its technology partner MatsSoft, developed a system in which healthcare staff at each facility receives automated SMS messages, which prompt them to check the remaining stock of anti-malarial drugs each week. Using toll-free numbers, staff reply with an SMS to a central database system hosted in the United Kingdom, providing details of stock levels, and deliveries can be made before supplies run out at local health centres.
“This is an example of a truly innovative solution helping solve a humanitarian problem,” says Peter Ward of IBM, SMS for Life Project Manager. “After spending time on the ground, we created a project plan, developed the application with Vodafone and Novartis and established the best way to deliver the pilot, working with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. We expect other countries will also be able to benefit in the future.”
“Vodafone has worked closely with IBM, Novartis and MatsSoft, to develop a simple, robust and innovative system that is able to deliver even in the most remote African communities,” said Dr. Dianne Sullivan, Scientific Adviser, Mobile Health, of Vodafone. “The SMS for Life solution shows the tremendous potential of mobile technology to deliver social good through lateral thinking by helping to ensure supplies of life-saving drugs.”
During the first few weeks of the pilot, the number of health facilities with stock-outs in one district alone, was reduced by over 75 percent. The early success of the SMS for Life pilot project has the Tanzanian authorities interested in implementing the solution across the rest of the country. Tanzania has around 5,000 clinics, hospitals and dispensaries, but at any one time, as many as half could potentially be out of stock of anti-malarial drugs.
“The SMS for Life program has already had a positive effect in Tanzania,” says Senior Health Officer with Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Tanzania, Winfred Mwafongo. “I’ve seen district medical officers ordering urgent stock replacements for various health facilities. During a visit to 19 rural health facilities in one district alone, I saw huge improvements in their inventory management systems. I’m very impressed with the results so far and look forward to following the rest of the pilot through to completion.”
“Collaboration is critical to tackle health problems of the developing world, and we are proud to be part of the SMS for Life partnership, a project that will reduce stock-outs, and ensure that mothers and their young children in Africa have access to life-saving anti-malarial medicines,” says Silvio Gabriel, Executive Vice President and Head of the Malaria Initiatives at Novartis.
Designed as a public and private partnership leveraging the skills and resources of several companies, SMS for Life could have far-reaching implications for existing health systems worldwide. Several other African states are already keen to introduce the project.
Malaria Clinic in Tanzania helped by SMS for Life and IBM LotusLive.com cloud computing. Copyright: Olympia Wereko-Brobby. Click on photo for print-quality version.
About the RBM Global Partnership
The RBM Partnership is the global coordinator of the fight against malaria. RBM draws its strength and experience from hundreds of partners from malaria endemic countries, country donors, companies, non-governmental and community organisations, foundations and research and academic institutions. RBM partners’ collective aim is to reduce annual malaria deaths from around one million to virtually zero by 2015 through the implementation of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP). This outlines RBM’s vision for a substantial and sustained reduction in the burden of malaria in the near and mid-term, and the eventual global eradication of malaria in the long term with the introduction of new tools. www.rollbackmalaria.org
About IBM
For more information about IBM, please visit www.ibm.com.
About Novartis
Novartis provides healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Focused solely on healthcare, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines, diagnostic tools and consumer health products. Novartis is the only company with leading positions in each of these areas. In 2008, the Group’s continuing operations achieved net sales of USD 41.5 billion and net income of USD 8.2 billion. Approximately USD 7.2 billion was invested in R&D activities throughout the Group. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 99,000 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world’s leading international mobile communications group with approximately 323 million proportionate customers as at 30 September 2009. Vodafone currently has equity interests in 31 countries across five continents and around 40 partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com.
Filed under: pharmaceutical marketing | Tags: brands, pharmaceutical, Big Pharma, pharma, trust, transparency, tamiflu, bmj, cochrane
The internet was blazing hot yesterday and today about the latest, in now an ever-growing list of transparency issues with Big Pharma and blockbuster drugs. The latest victim – Roche’s Tamiflu. According to a recent analysis published by the British Medical Journal, it was concluded that Tamiflu had “modest effectiveness” against the symptoms of the flu in otherwise healthy adults — cutting symptoms by about a day.
The report, an update of a 2005 analysis by Cochrane Collaboration, excluded eight studies funded by Roche that haven’t been published and whose full data wasn’t given to the researchers. The exclusion reversed the group’s earlier finding that Tamiflu protects against complications.
The report raises questions about how drugs are reviewed, approved and distributed, Fiona Godlee, the British journal’s editor in chief, wrote in an editorial. The studies originally used to establish the benefits of Tamiflu were written by Roche employees and paid consultants, under-reported serious side effects and failed to clearly identify all the authors, she wrote. In at least one case, a study was attributed to a researcher who disavowed any involvement to the journal, Godlee wrote.
Follow the story here:
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: friday morning, med ad news, pharma, pharmageddon 2012, physicians, s+r medical communications, trust, youtube
Filed under: Medical Education | Tags: Apps, cme, CME list, continuing medical education, medscape, NEJM, online CME, Pri-Med, ReachMD, S&R Communications, top online CME, XM Radio
My, how far CME has come in the age of technology! It seems like just yesterday that CME was in the infancy stage of being offered through websites and portals. But now with the advent of ReachMD and its unique XM Radio/iPhone/social media approach to CME, physicians truly have a wide range of mediums to increase their knowledge. And it doesn’t stop there. According to the Bernard Sklar’s CME List their are more than 300 CME sites/portals/apps/podcasting available through the internet today compared to 87 just 10 years ago. And when you look at the physician participants from that time frame the numbers have increased by more than 4 million (181,922 to 4,365,013).
So where are all of these physicians spending most of their time? The top 30 CME sites (according to #hours available) are below.
The Top 30 CME Sites (according to the number of hours offered)
1. Contemporary Forums-Online CE Library
2. Audio Digest
3. Challenger Online Lecture Hall
4. CMEWeb
5. Medscape CME Center
6. Virtual Lecture Hall
7. Clinical Directors Network (CDN)
8. Pri-Med Online
9. NetCE Continuing Education on the Internet
10. American Society for Clinical Pathology
11. RSNA (Radiological Soc North America)
12. TheAnswerPage
13. Practical Reviews Online
14. CardioVillage
15. Sullivan Group (The)
16. theheart.org
17. CME Institute
18. CMELectures.org
19. Oncologist (The)
20. Harvard Online CME
21. Drexel MCP Hahnemann Virt Grand Rounds
22. MedRisk Online
23. Johns Hopkins Advanced Studies Courses
24. American Acad Ped PREP Self-Ass Online
25. Neurology (J American Acad Neurology)
26. Washington University (St Louis)
27. Children’s of Minnesota Grand Rounds
28. FreeCME
29. NEJM Weekly CME Program
30. American Acad of Orthopaedic Surgery OKO
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: android, Apps, augmented reality, healthcare, iPhone, layar, mobile
With the advent of mobile augmented reality apps and developers like Layar, what was once just a pipe dream in the minds of marketers just a few months ago is now a wide open canvas for innovation. Recently, we discussed how healthcare could benefit immensely from the new augmented reality technology that was being developed for Android and the iPhone. And it looks like that day has arrived, according to a new interview Mobile Health News had with the developers of Layar about new healthcare aps being developed for their augmented reality platform. Some of the key exchanges are below.
Are there any healthcare or related Layars currently available?
In the beginning, we launched in Holland and one of our original launch partners was Zekur.nl, which is a local healthcare provider. They have a specific health insurance offering, which is only available over the Internet and it is cheap because they only contract out their healthcare services to specific providers. So you can only go to “that” chiropractor and not the other one. In order to facilitate this and give their patients insights into which provider they can go to — they built one of the first Layars with us to point people to where they can go. This company is also very young so they needed the marketing push this platform would give them. The various healthcare providers covered by their insurance are what you can find [if you toggle] their Layar. That’s one of the first healthcare use cases.
Secondly, we have a general hospital Layar in Japan that enables users to point their phone in any direction and it shows them on their camera screen the closest hospitals or emergency rooms in that direction. This is like a healthcare directory service. Also, in Japan and in Holland there is a Layar that allows users to find the nearest AED, [which is an "automated external defibrillator" -- a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them through defibrillation.] These are machines in public places that people can use on people who have heart attacks.
OK, I can see that service as being potentially useful — what’s next? Beyond just finding things through your mobile camera — how else can this platform better health or wellbeing? What other opportunities do you see?
Well, you know that I am a cancer survivor, right? So for me that is a good subject always and I know the Livestrong Foundation has a new campaign where you can make what’s called a Dedication Page. I made a Dedication Page for my wife, who was great to me and I express that through my Dedication Page. It is a great way to really capture that and to make other people aware of what people do in that circumstance. Those pages also include location information, so that could make a great Layar, where you could go to a Livestrong Dedication Layar and see, literally, how much “cancer” is all around you. I mean that in a good way — the Layar could make people aware of how much of an impact something like cancer has. Maybe as a part of that Layar you could make a donation or send flowers to someone, but really just to raise awareness and help people lend support, this Layar would be very effective. I didn’t know how much there was out there before I got sick. It’s good to put that information out there because for those who have it can know that they are not alone. I have emailed them, but I haven’t heard back yet.
Another way is for an epidemic type thing, which it may or may not be true for the H1N1, but you could use Layar to pinpoint where cases of [the H1N1 swine flue have been diagnosed], those may be areas that you might want to avoid.
One of the biggest challenges, especially in healthcare, is knowing where to go once you are in the hospital. This is more of a future application — we are not doing this yet — but say, you have an appointment with your specialist: Those are very expensive appointments so you need to make sure people know how to get there. Layar could point you to which door you should take to get you to the place you need to be in. This is not possible now, but I see it as a common use case for the future.
Read the full interview here.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Big Pharma, drugs, healthcare, Patients, pew priscriptions project, pharmaceutical rep, physicians, relationships, transparency, trust, washington post
Trust has been a big topic on this blog of late and for good reason. The pharmaceutical community has a growing divide between physicians and drug companies and unless it’s addressed, a cataclysmic event could be on the horizon. But according to a report in the Washington Post, there is an even bigger trust issue growing between patients and physicians.
The Post reported that 68 percent of respondents to a Pew Prescription Project survey supported legislation that would require public disclosure of financial relationships between physicians and industry. In fact, 78 percent believed that accepting gifts from the pharmaceutical industry influences their doctors’ prescribing habits, but only 34 percent said they would be likely to ask their doctors about potentially troubling financial ties.
So what’s the solution? Transparency? Conversation? Regulation? Find out what the Washington Post recommends here.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I was never a hippie or street protester during the 1960s, but something has got me by the neck, and I think it is time to raise a storm of protest to our senators and congressmen. It centers upon the on goings of Senator Chuck Grassley’s Senate panel regarding the pharmaceutical industry’s influence and “control” of CME for physicians.
The basic premise is that CME programs should not accept commercial support (eg, funding from pharma) because it provides undue influence over physicians and their prescribing decisions. In other words, all CME programming would, if the panel has their way, come from doctors and hospitals paying for the costs of such educational programs. For those of you who don’t follow this, we are talking about more than $1 billion of costs, and there is no way that will come from physicians and hospitals.
In essence, what the Senate panel is saying is that physicians, unlike any other group of consumers, are not capable or intelligent enough to gather information from a number of different sources (just as you might when buying a car, TV, phone, or anything else for that matter).
The supposition is that they are unable to gather information from a number of different sources, evaluate that information (all done within ACCME guidelines and regulations) and come to a decision of what they deem best for the patient, hospital, or third-party payer. Imagine that—here are highly educated people that we trust with our lives, and they aren’t smart enough to consider the evidence and determine the best choice.
Now if this sounds totally stupid and you are a bit skeptical of what I might be saying, here is the website link < http://www.policymed.com> where you can in fact read the transcriptions of those panel discussions. Then you can come to your own conclusions about what is going on.
So here is the point: What they are doing is basically undercutting the very foundations of what ACCME accredited providers do on a day-to-day basis. Those providers strictly and closely adhere to the ACCME regulations and guidelines to provide the highest quality education in an unbiased and clinically applicable fashion. If they don’t, guess what—they don’t get reaccredited by the ACCME. After all, is it not the ACCME’s responsibility (rather then the Senate and Congress) to ensure that its certified providers follow the rules?
Here is a suggestion if you agree with my comments and thinking: Please write your Representatives and Senators and ask that they do the following. Ask them to propose legislation that will ban all lobbying efforts and campaign contributions to any state or federally elected official.
If physicians are not smart enough to be able to decipher and decide in light of commercial funding for CME, then surely Representatives and Senators should not be unduly influenced by lobbyist dinners, seminars, trips, or campaign contributions from various industries. What’s fair is fair.
If this is the first volley, I can only imagine what comes next—pharma cannot in any way promote to physicians? Get your hippie gear out, protest, and let’s go back to Woodstock—Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Hells Angels, here we come!
-Dave Recht
