Connecting for good health

Kishore Kar

Poor medication adherence costs the pharmaceutical industry hundreds of thousands of crore in lost sales per annum. Findings from a number of medical studies show patient adherence ranges from 50-80 per cent. Non-adherence can lead to poor health outcomes, drug resistance, prolonged illness, mortality and increased medical costs.

Across the globe, mobile health (mhealth) technology is improving healthcare delivery. In Sub-Saharan Africa, short-messaging service (SMS) reminders have been used to increase medication adherence and improve short-term health behaviours. In India, telemedicine has taken off, allowing patients to speak to a health advisor over the phone, and speciality hospitals are offering free refill reminders to their patients.

Based on experience in mobile authentication and the huge potential of mobile health care to transform healthcare delivery, PharmaSecure is launching psConnect – a mobile health (mhealth) platform that enables a variety of providers to offer mhealth services. Now consumers can opt-in to health services when they authenticate a PharmaSecure coded medicine package. Initially, three services will be provided: free health tips, free refill reminders and talk to a health advisor.

PharmaSecure entered the India market in 2009 to provide pharma companies with anti-counterfeiting solutions through mobile authentication. Globally and in India, counterfeit medicines are a huge problem costing the lives of hundreds of thousands of people per year. Counterfeit medicines can result in patients experiencing prolonged illness, ineffective treatment and drug resistance. According to a FICCI committee report, counterfeit medicines make up to 15-20 per cent of the Indian pharma market.

Authentication and psConnect messages

Mobile authentication empowers the end consumer to check and authenticate his own medicine by sending a simple verification SMS. A random and unique alphanumeric code is printed at the manufacturing line on each medicine package (strip or blister pack) along with a mobile number where this code can be sent by an SMS. When a consumer sends this message, an immediate reply is received that verifies the medicine is a genuine product of the manufacturer.

Now with the psConnect a patient can authenticate a hypertension medicine, opt-in for refill reminders, receive customised health tips about his condition and talk to a health advisor when he has a question. In addition to the primary benefit of empowering consumers to check that they are buying an authentic drug, this solution has the added benefit of establishing a two-way channel of communication between the manufacturer and the consumer. This can be used to disseminate important drug safety information, educate consumers about their particular ailments and inform patients about key public health initiatives. The platform providers manufacturers numerous possibilities to increase their market advantage, distinguish their brand and create loyal consumers.

To enhance the interactivity of this mobile solution, PharmaSecure has introduced a value-added service called psConnect. The psConnect mhealth platform currently provides free reminders to refill medicines, health tips and quick connections to a health advisor.

How it works

After a consumer authenticates her medicine by SMS she receives a sequence of two messages. The first message verifies the authenticity of the product. The second SMS presents her with a menu of service options from which she can select.

Application 1: Refill reminders
Poor medicine compliance contributes to sub-optimal outcomes to treatment. SMS reminders are a simple but powerful tool to keep patients on track. Through the psConnect platform, patients can opt-in for refill reminders for every seven, 10 or 15 days.

Application 2: Health tips
We all want to make informed decisions about our health. By signing-up for health tips, now patients can have the information they need to lead healthier lives and enjoy the maximum benefits of the medicines they take.

Application 3: Speak with a health advisor
Poor health literacy leads to improper medicine use and poor compliance. In many cases, physicians and chemists cannot spend sufficient time talking to patients about their condition or how to take their medicine properly. Now patients can be linked to medically qualified advisors over the phone who can provide:

• Medicine information
• Stress management
• Nutrition advice
• Disease information
• Treatment recommendations
• Nearby hospitals, clinics, doctors and more!

Over the past decade, the telecom industry has boomed with now over 900 million wireless subscribers in India alone. This makes the mobile phone by far, the best medium for communicating with and reaching the masses, especially people located in physically remote areas of the country. Mobile phones are now being used to disseminate information about government services (e.g. passport application status), provide financial inclusion (e.g. opening of bank accounts in villages) and create access to health services.

Counterfeit drugs are a global menace, and it is time to take aggressive measures to prevent the proliferation of this menace in India. The rapid growth in mobile phone usage provides the opportunity to do so in a low-cost, effective, scalable manner. Uniquely coding drugs and enabling them to be authenticated via a simple SMS may be just the solution to do the trick. It is important for both manufacturers and the government to seriously evaluate the potential and take the right steps to put this power in the hands of the Indian consumer.

(The author can be contacted at [email protected])