Digital Health Technologies Applied by the Pharmaceutical Industry to Improve Access to Noncommunicable Disease Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Anne Christine Stender Heerdegen; Carlotta Maria Cellini; Veronika J. Wirtz; Peter C. Rockers

doi:10.9745/GHSP-D-22-00072

Key Findings

Pharmaceutical industry–led access programs have benefited from the application of digital health technologies (DHTs) to educate and empower patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) to make better-informed decisions about their health and to enhance service delivery through telemedicine, telepathology, and capacity building of health care workers.
DHTs applied by global pharmaceutical companies in their access programs that aim to improve NCD care in low- and middle-income countries are primarily implemented across sub-Saharan Africa and mostly directed toward health providers. Digital technologies targeting data services and patient populations were also commonly applied to respectively collect, manage, and use data, as well as to enhance patients’ disease management, awareness, and medication adherence.

Key Implication

Evidence on pharmaceutical industry–led DHTs may enable national stakeholders to identify opportunities to promote access to NCD care in various health system contexts and prevent siloed work across sectors. Moreover, it may provide guidance and orientation to policy makers in identifying duplicative and redundant digital health efforts that may overburden local health systems.

ABSTRACT

Background:

There is limited research on how digital health technologies (DHTs) are used to promote access to care for patients with noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We describe the use of DHTs in pharmaceutical industry–led access programs aimed at improving access to NCD care in LMICs.

Methods:

The Access Observatory is the largest publicly available repository containing detailed information about pharmaceutical industry—led access programs targeting NCDs. The repository includes 101 access program reports submitted by 19 pharmaceutical companies. From each report, we extracted data relating to geographic location, disease area, beneficiary population, use of DHTs, partnerships, strategies, and activities. Data were analyzed descriptively using SAS Statistical Software and categorized according to the World Health Organization Digital Health Classification Framework.

Results:

A total of 43 access programs (42.6%) included DHTs. The majority of programs using DHTs were clustered across sub-Saharan Africa (72.1%) and targeted cancer (60.5%) followed by metabolic disorders (39.5%). The applied DHTs mostly related to program strategies on health service strengthening (74.4%) and community awareness (41.9%) and were largely directed toward health providers, followed by data services and clients. Only a few DHTs were used for health system management. To promote access, most DHTs focused on improving data collection, management, and use (51.1%); building health provider capacity through training (37.2%); and providing targeted patient information (34.8%).

Conclusion:

The range of DHTs applied by the pharmaceutical industry offers opportunities for more effective access to NCD care. Transparent reporting on DHT use and its contributions to access programs’ achievements may reduce duplicative and redundant efforts and provide learnings for private and public stakeholders that may contribute to greater access to NCD care in LMICs.

Received: February 22, 2022.
Accepted: August 23, 2022.
Published: October 31, 2022.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly cited. To view a copy of the license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. When linking to this article, please use the following permanent link: https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-22-00072

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