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| L-R Ravi Akelia,Director, Technology Solutions, AMESA, IQVIA in Technology ; Remi Adeseun, Country Manager, West Africa, IQVIA in General; Pharm Ahmed Yakassai; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria; Prof. Mike Ogirima, President, Nigeria Medical Association;Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, and Dr. Femi Olugbile, Chairman, IQVIA HCPSpace Advisory Board, during the MOU Signing Ceremony at the official launch of the IQVIA HCPSpace in Lagos, recently. |
Chioma Umeha
Healthcare professionals in the country have been
urged to leverage communication and networking in to improve the networth of
health service given to the patients.
The appeal came from Prince Julius
Adelusi-Adeluyi, Chairman of the occasion and President, Nigerian Academy of
Pharmacy, who encouraged professionals to become early adopters in the use of
digital health platforms that will positively improve patient outcomes.
Adelusi-Adeluyi made the appeal at the launch in
Nigeria of the IQVIA HCPSpace, a digital healthcare platform, by leading global
provider of information, innovative technology solutions and human data
science, IQVIA, formerly known as Quintiles IMS.
IQVIA HCPSpace is a web and mobile based platform
designed to bring together all specialties and sub specialties of doctors,
pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, and all other healthcare
professionals, where they can connect with peers, follow Key Opinion Leaders
(KOLs).
It will also serve as a platform to discuss
medical cases, establish public/private groups, view videos for increased
knowledge, earn Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points from content
provided by approved bodies and KOLs.
Similarly, healthcare professionals would find
jobs and career opportunities across multiple regions in Africa and the Middle
East under the platform.
He said that IQVIA’s HCPSpace is a bridge-building
tool that would encourage collaboration among healthcare providers whilst
driving efficiency, performance and capacity utilisation as well as innovation
in the nation’s health space as a whole.
“I would like to commend IQVIA for trying to crack
a problem that has remained with Nigeria for quite a while giving the numbers
of government committees that had been set up in the past to solve the
challenge of inter-professional collaboration and promote harmony in the health
space.
“This tool will be a blessing to the nation as it
will radically alter Nigeria’s health landscape for good and help to reduce
unnecessary competition among professionals,” Adelusi-Adeluyi stated.
Dr. Femi Olugbile, Chairman of the IQVIA HCPSpace
Advisory Board, pointed to the growing domestication of technology for personal
and professional use across the world as well as creating a sense of team in
community via multi-specialty task performance and problem solving tools.
He also noted that healthcare around the world
faced imminent disruption as evidenced by an alliance announced recently by
three heavyweights in Corporate America –
e-commerce giants, Amazon, global multinational, Berkshire Hathaway and
Investment bank, JPMorgan Chase.
“The HCPSpace provides a solid platform to prepare
for the imminent disruption of the nation’s health space,” he stated.
Olugbile added, “All over the world, there is an
increasing awareness that communication and collaboration are essential
ingredients for the creation of a thriving, high-achieving healthy work force,
as well as a system that delivers good quality healthcare to patients.
“Nigeria is blessed with talented and highly
skilled men and women in various healthcare professions. There is a need for
them to be able to interact, both as separate groups with common professional
interests sharing new processes, innovations, and continuous professional
development activities, and also as members of an expanded team with a common
interest in healthcare and advancing the interests of the patient.”
Providing the reason for the platform’s existence,
Pharm. Remi Adeseun, Country Manager, West Africa, IQVIA in General, recalled
that a communiqué was issued at the end of the Inter-Professional Collaboration
Symposium organised by the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy in collaboration with
the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).
The event which held on May 11, 2017 at the
University of Lagos, encapsulated an eight-point resolution, and underscored
the need to deepen the concept of universal communication and collaboration
among healthcare professionals via tools that are yielding documented benefits
and gains in the healthcare sector across the world.
“We are very confident that the IQVIA HCPSpace
will help improve the healthcare professionals’ practice, patient experience
and produce desired healthcare outcomes.
“This is premised around the tool’s great value
proposition for individual and general development, knowledge sharing and
relationship building, and I urge all persons who recognise the need to take
Nigerian healthcare to the level of proficiency and prominence that it deserves
on the world stage to embrace this platform,” Adeseun added.
Dr. Abiola Idowu, Director, Planning Research and
Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Health, who represented the Commissioner of
Health, lamented the underutilisation of networking platforms in the health
sector and the urgent need to establish global competencies and standards to
support the improvement of quality of care as well as create synergy among
health care professionals.
