App-propriating healthcare
Revolutionising the healthcare space through digital innovation.
YOU’RE watching your favourite TV programme, and you hear a voice in your ear softly saying, “It’s time for your medication”.
Your right eye flashes briefly, and you feel your medicine flowing into your bloodstream. The process merely takes a couple of seconds, and you’ve not missed a second of your show.
This scenario, in all probability, is something we’ll see in the near future.
Take a look around, and you’ll notice that technology, and the internet in particular, has impacted nearly every aspect of our daily lives.
From the way we communicate with emojis, to getting from point A to B by using our smartphones and apps, today’s digital innovations are giving us a fresh new perspective on how life can, and will, look like.
The healthcare space is no different, with virtual diagnosis, research, treatment and solutions something most of us accept and take for granted nowadays.
But while technology has empowered patients and professionals to adapt and make changes to the healthcare industry, the bigger questions are whether it has enhanced medical services and made healthcare more accessible to everyone, and whether it has made a tangible difference to the industry.
Benefiting patients
Bayer Malaysia managing director Jennifer Yong, for one, believes that the internet has not only positively affected the healthcare industry, but has also become a major source of medical information.
She points out that more and more people go online to research and treat their medical issues, as well as read how others who may have the same conditions or diseases go through their daily lives.
“This is why there is a need to continuously and proactively explore opportunities to advance the needs of patients and enhance the healthcare industry,” she says.
“Harnessing technology can complement research capacities, stimulate innovation and facilitate the development of new approaches that eventually benefit patients, both today and tomorrow,” she adds.
As an example, Yong points to Bayer’s recently-launched BayPAP (Bayer Patient Assistance Program) web app, a collaboration between the company and healthcare services provider Zuellig Pharma.
The app caters to cancer patients, particularly those with liver cancer – the eighth most frequent cancer and the sixth most common cancer in males in Malaysia.
The innovative, technology-driven tool, Bayer’s first web-based medication assistance resource, provides patients and physicians easy access to a specially-designed, one-stop portal.
It offers both parties a “paperless” experience and a holistic record of the patient’s treatment duration on Bayer’s medication, as well as their redemption history.
“If we had continued with the paper process, the redemption of medication would sometimes take up to a few weeks, and occasionally lead to a situation where patients are due for free medication before the completion of the paper process,” says Yong.
“With the BayPAP web app, the lead time for redemption is reduced to three days, which is a significant change.”
Bayer’s patient assistance programme was first launched in 2009 and provides medication assistance to liver cancer patients undergoing treatment with sorafenib, an oral-targeted therapy for inoperable liver cancer.
Bayer introduced its second patient assistance programme in 2014 to assist individuals with colorectal cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST), which are treated with an oral-targeted therapy treatment.
Much more to do
Zuellig Pharma vice-president for CareConnect Moses Hee says that digital
solutions in today’s healthcare landscape are essential, given that the current digitallydriven environment makes it conducive for patients and doctors to access healthcare advisory and follow-ups.
Globally, the healthcare industry is moving towards digital innovation, and Malaysia is among the countries quick to adopt this platform.
“But there are many considerations to take into account before going fully digital,” he offers.
“For example, being very careful with the way we treat patient information and being respectful of their privacy, strong governance around data privacy, and adapting to technology advancements.”
Hee adds that stronger technology infra-
structure in the region has also helped in the adoption of new technologies by both patients and healthcare providers.
“We have recently successfully launched SWITCH, a mobile lifestyle management programme that helps manage NCDs (noncommunicable diseases) – diseases caused by stress, diets and other lifestyle choices,” he says.
“We have since received good feedback and we are not stopping here.
“We will continue to leverage on the advancement of technology to enhance our SWITCH programme to not only create awareness, but also early detection and more effective disease management.
“We have also invested in a health tech start-up that has created a system to support doctors and clinics in digitising their operations.”
He adds, however, that we must keep embracing changes in technology to create a technology-first healthcare industry so that we are able to keep up with the region’s fast-growing healthcare needs.
“Effective and affordable disease prevention measures are important, but disease management is equally important,” he says.
“Technology, in all its forms and functions, has the potential to help patients better manage their medical conditions, especially chronic conditions such as liver cancer, and help them afford and adhere to medical treatment.”
Facilitating treatment outcomes
Consultant clinical oncologist Dr John Low Seng Hooi says that a paperless healthcare industry would provide numerous benefits, especially for patients with a complex medical history such as those who liver cancer, who often have to deal with numerous medical records.
“Going paperless does save healthcare costs and improves patient health and safety, while ensuring medical history and files are kept in databases, which can be easily accessed from anywhere in a hospital,” he says.
“With detailed information and pertinent records at our fingertips, and patients now being able to better interact with us, we can easily follow through on their conditions, and ultimately, facilitate better treatment outcomes,” he adds.
Dr Low says the key to helping patients – in this instance, those suffering from liver cancer – is to manage their condition well by prescribing them the right treatment at the right time. And with this paperless platform, the cancer patients themselves can take an active role in the management of their own condition.
Modern medicine and technology will continue to provide doctors with new and innovative ways to improve the quality of life of our patients.