L-R Director, Technology Solutions, AMESA, IQVIA in Technology, Ravi Akelia; President, Nigeria Medical Association, Prof. Mike Ogirima; President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi; Country Manager, West Africa, IQVIA in General, Remi Adeseun and Chairman, IQVIA HCPSpace Advisory Board, Dr. Femi Olugbile during the MOU Signing Ceremony at the official launch of the IQVIA HCPSpace in Lagos

An appeal has gone out to healthcare professionals in the country to leverage communication and networking in order to improve the net worth of health service given to patients. To underscore this approach, they were urged to become early adopters in the use of digital health platforms that will positively improve patient outcomes. This was the unequivocal submission of leading health practitioners 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), 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, find jobs and career opportunities across multiple regions in Africa and the Middle East.

Chairman of the occasion and President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi noted that IQVIA’s HCPSpace is a bridge-building tool that will encourage collaboration among healthcare providers whilst driving efficiency, performance and capacity utilization 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 given the numbers of government committees that had been set up in the past to solve the challenge of interprofessional 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.

Chairman of the IQVIA HCPSpace Advisory Board, Dr. Femi Olugbile, 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 faces 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.

“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,” Dr. Olugbile said.

Providing the reason for the platform’s existence, Country Manager, West Africa, IQVIA in General, Pharm. Remi Adeseun recalled that a communiqué was issued at the end of the Inter-Professional Collaboration Symposium organized 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 8-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 recognize 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.

Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Abiola Idowu, who represented the Commissioner of Health, lamented the underutilization 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.

The platform is device-independent, high-interactive interface, and mobile-responsive and optimized. It is available for free download as native IOS and Android apps in the relevant app stores. As a social tool that leverages technology and human insight, the HCPSpace features exciting tools that include a chat platform that allows for the creation of special groups of medical professionals in the same network of professionals.

The launch event, which brought together various professionals from across the health spectrum, featured goodwill messages delivered by key personalities as President, Nigeria Medical Association, Prof. Mike Ogirima; and President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Pharm Ahmed Yakassai. Other special guests at the event included Executive Secretary, Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Pharm. Sena Awittey; Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, who was represented by ?Head, ICT Division, Yomi Adeyemi; Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN),Dr Tajudeen Adisa Bolanle Sanusi; Publisher of Nigeria’s leading health ?journal, PharmaNews, Pharm. (Sir) Ifeanyi Atueyi; Representative of the Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, and Nigerian representatives of overseas manufacturers.

Global representatives of IQVIA, Director, Technology Solutions, AMESA, IQVIA in Technology, Ravi Akelia and Principal Digital, AMESA, IQVIA in Technology, Rajagopal Sevilimedu took the guests through an exciting simulation exercise of the HCPSpace as well as the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the firm and the NMA to fast track local adoption of the platform.