Pharmaceutical
drugs can work wonders for patients, whether it’s treating rare diseases or
easing everyday maladies. But drugs can also be complex. What works for one
patient may not for another, and side effects could be possible. Also, the
longer that a drug is on the market, the more its manufacturer might learn and
document about its effects. All of this information is important, and in order
to prescribe drugs wisely, doctors need access to it.
Unfortunately, vital drug information is not always easy to find. As is observed in the case study Making medical information easily accessible to healthcare professionals, there are often barriers to disseminating this information. Three common problems are:
- Reliable, accurate information on the drug is stored on a company’s website in a way that is cumbersome or not intuitive to access
- Online “drug compendia” websites are often easier to navigate but can be out-of-date or contain misinformation
- Healthcare providers might be under the misapprehension that the information on the pharmaceutical company’s site is promotional and therefore not necessarily accurate
Clearly solutions are needed – and the pharmaceutical companies that make these drugs must be involved in the process of making important drug information easily accessible.
One great initiative has been the establishment of the Pharma Collaboration for Transparent Medical Information (also known as phactMI), a consortium of 30 pharmas that includes major companies like AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, GSK, Merck, Pfizer and many more.
“We have come together to strategize ways to accelerate how US Healthcare Professionals can obtain timely and accurate answers to their questions and combat the real risk that HCPs may be relying on information that’s either inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated,” said Dr. Marie-Ange Noué, Senior Director & Head of Scientific Communications at EMD Serono, which is also one of the organizations in the consortium.
PhactMI partnered with Elsevier to create a centralized medical information platform to support an easy-to-use online tool that enables HCPs to quickly and easily find drug information when they need it by going to phactMI.org. Powered by Entellect, the site allows them to do a simple search by product name or search term to easily locate the information they need.
The members of
phactMI understood that it was important that the solution to the problem by
automated and personalized, that the search platform is helping to deliver on
that.
“Industry and healthcare
community insights point to a next-generation approach that personalizes
medical engagement. Medical information will be a key contributor to this
strategy,” explained Dr. Noué in the case study. “At EMD Serono, our vision for
that future is automated, targeted, well-placed delivery of evidence-based medical
information. We didn’t take the first strides towards that vision alone.
Instead, as a consortium we came together with likeminded enterprises to focus
on one thing: to better equip HCPs to make treatment decisions in the best
interest of their patients.”
Read the full case study to learn more.
