Why should healthcare companies and providers care about leveraging digital tools such as big data, transformative technology and analytics?

pharmaceutical care or medical care. We at IQVIA, for whom that is our core existence, technology, are taking that challenge on and providing a platform that is available for networking among healthcare practitioners of the same group for instance, so pharmacists can reach out to pharmacists, what is going on in our area, what are the cutting edge new development and beyond that, build on the work that is being done on getting greater collaboration among healthcare practitioners. So you see pharmacists, doctors working together to solve patients problems.

We also thought that we could develop the HCP Space in a way that we work with the regulators to identify genuine or validate genuine healthcare professionals, and have them in this secure environment where they can interact, form groups, have access to learning and development, continuing professional development either for the medics or pharmacists, nurses and laboratory scientists.

This is building on the work that the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy did last year and which I was a part of. That is the inter-professional collaboration thing, and taking it from ending up as having been a talk-shop and providing a tool that allows those professionals who have indicated willingness to collaborate to now have a tool that enables them to do so on an ongoing basis, without having to bother about how to maintain the infrastructure for that.

That is the service we have come to provide and we know that ultimately this would allow people access beyond even the practice in Nigeria, because the HCPSpace is for the whole of Africa and the Middle East. For the first time, a multinational is kicking off its new product development in Nigeria. Typically, things get developed in other parts of the world and brought here, but because of the confidence the IQVIA leadership team has in Nigeria market place in terms of the eco-system we have seen in health and tech, we are very confident that we can do this and take the HCP Space to other parts of the world. So even before other African countries, India, South Asia, and Middle East, Nigeria will be launching this IQVIA HCPSpace first in Lagos.

Research shows that there are similar products out there in the market place. Why should a health practitioner be interested in HCPSpace? The great thing about IQVIA HCPSpace is that unlike other platforms that exist for networking, this is the first that is dedicated absolutely to healthcare professionals. So it is not a jack of all trade approach. It is a dedicated resource so that conversations can be open, intense, relevant and secure. You have it in a way that networking, news around the healthcare space both local and national is curated especially for the healthcare professionals.

Job opportunities that are local in nature to the various countries where we exist are curated again as well as international opportunities.

You have learning and development platforms, key opinion leaders who are from these areas, who know the exact trends and best practices, holding webinars on this platform and generally providing access in this first phase that will be limited to just the healthcare professionals themselves. I think the key value proposition is that you have a platform where an organisation has put its technical resources behind it to maintain it so that the healthcare professionals can operate in an environment that is exclusively dedicated to them. Ultimately, it will reach out to also allow the healthcare professionals transact all the things they do, whether it is referrals, prescriptions, purchases and all the other phases of transactions they may have. The next phase will be to integrate all of that into the system while the final phase will be access to also the patient platforms so that patients can engage healthcare practitioners, book appointments, among other things. We however will start off HCP Space focusing on inter- and intra-professional collaborations among the HCPs themselves.

From a tech standpoint, how do you intend to break the barriers of use, such as poor internet/network connection that might prevent a widespread adoption? One of the biggest barriers of use is portability. Research tells us that many people engage online through their hand-held devices. So HCPSpace has been optimised and designed specifically for mobile. There are quite number of other platforms that are for healthcare professionals which are just web-based, The biggest film and camera company back in the day was Kodak;they had all the resources in the world. When digital came into its space, they did not seem to care and carried on business as usual.

We all know that they eventually became obsolete and extinct. Change is constant and it is important for everyone because digital is a transformative change that if you do not join, you will be left behind. We are trying to pass that message across as others are doing and using those positive examples of those who have embraced change in the technology space for health, making health outcomes better.

It is a continuous thing. Government itself has to be involved in it as well as advocacy groups because when it catches on well, there are efficiency gains, effectiveness gain and an overall development plus economic value created. Jobs will be created as a result of digital, transferable skills that can be deployed in other areas and just a general uplifting of the wellbeing in both the health and the economy of the population.