PharmaShots Interview: Vivacare’s Mark Becker Shares Insight on the Digital Patient Education Service for Allergic Conditions

In an interview with PharmaShots, Mark Becker, MD, founder, President, and CEO at Vivacare shared his views on the new collaboration with Asthma and Allergy Network to provide a Digital patient education service for allergic conditions

Shots:

Vivacare and the AAN collaborated to develop a digital patient education service for members regarding allergies, asthma, eczema, and other allergic conditions
AAN members will receive a personalized “Patient Education Toolkit” with patient education resources for multiple treated allergic conditions
AAN is responsible to provide the patient education content and promote the service to its professional members while Vivacare is responsible to manage the digital platform & providing customer support to enrolled users

Tuba: Can we discuss the details of the partnership, terms, services Vivacare will provide AAN, etc.?

Mark Becker: Vivacare and the AAN have partnered to develop an innovative digital patient education service.

The AAN has provided Vivacare with 100+ patient education titles regarding allergies, asthma, eczema and other allergic conditions for delivery through the Vivacare service.

Professional members of the AAN are provided the Premium-level service at no cost as a benefit of membership, normally a cost of $150 per year. The Premium-level service includes the ability to personalize and customize the content and offers several practice marketing features.

The AAN is responsible for providing the patient education content and promoting the service to its professional members while Vivacare is responsible for managing the digital platform and offering customer support to enrolled users.

Tuba: How does this partnership will benefit patient education services?

Mark Becker: The partnership benefits Vivacare by enhancing its collection of patient education content, providing greater value to allergists, pediatricians, and other medical professionals that diagnose and treat allergic conditions.

The partnership benefits the AAN by efficiently delivering its patient education resources through a trusted, doctor-branded channel at the point of care and offering an innovative service to its professional members.

The patient education content delivered by Vivacare is bundled into Disease Education Programs for which the AAN may independently seek support from pharmaceutical sponsors.

Tuba: Can you brief me about Vivacare’s digital Patient Education Toolkit?

Mark Becker: The Toolkit can be considered the doctor’s own “WebMD-like” resource for their patients, that is customizable and free of advertising.

The Patient Education Toolkit is a web-based collection of printable handouts, videos and other resources that are personalized for the medical professional and designed to help his/her own patients prepare for their appointments and better manage their care from home.

Patient education resources can be easily distributed to patients via print, email, text, or display on the doctor’s own website. Multiple practices have displayed the Toolkit on their own Website to make it an in-depth resource for patients.

The medical professionals can also download the Vivacare mobile app to access their Toolkit and send their patients an “Information Prescription” via email or text. (An “Information Prescription” is a collection of doctor-recommend resources relevant to the patient)

The Toolkit is pre-loaded with hundreds of titles relevant to the professional’s specialty and the physician can also publish his/her own patient education to the Toolkit.

Tuba: Which indications and areas are being covered under the resources provided by the Education Toolkit?

Mark Becker: The content from the AAN covers 5 major therapeutic areas; allergies, anaphylaxis, asthma, eczema, and food allergy.

Tuba: What is the role of HCPs in the whole toolkit?

Mark Becker: The HCP enrolls for the Toolkit and is provided the tools to customize the content by turning titles on/off, or publishing their own content.

The HCP is also responsible for distributing the content to patients as works best for their practice workflow. Some HCPs choose to print selected titles for distribution on paper while others display the Toolkit on the home page of their practice website. Others download the mobile app to deliver content via email or text.

Vivacare invites HCPs to enhance the content with their own patient education content to their Toolkit. They can publish their patient handouts, or supplement existing content with their own “Tips & Wisdom” - short summaries of their unique perspective on selected topics.

Tuba: Can you share a couple of examples of handouts or other contents already available for patients?

Mark Becker: Some of the content made available to professional members of the AAN include the following:

Allergies - https://baker.vivacare.com/HealthTopic/allergies__aan

Asthma Treatment & Medications - https://baker.vivacare.com/HealthTopic/asthma_treatment_and_medications_aan

Asthma Action Plan - https://baker.vivacare.com/HealthTopic/asthma_action_plan_aan

Anaphylaxis Emergency Action Plan - https://baker.vivacare.com/HealthTopic/anaphylaxis_emergency_action_plan_aan

What Triggers Eczema? - https://baker.vivacare.com/HealthTopic/what_triggers_eczema_aan

Tuba: How does Vivacare ensure patients receive correct information?

Vivacare is responsible for providing a robust collection of up-to-date patient education content from esteemed sources for distribution by the HCP. It is the responsibility of the HCP to determine the content to distribute to patients and to whom it is delivered.

Tuba: With which other companies and organizations Vivacare is working and for what indications?

Vivacare has developed disease education programs with other disease advocacy organizations, such as the National Rosacea Society. It has also developed professional membership benefit programs for other professional organizations, such as the Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants (SDPA).

Vivacare will soon be announcing the launch of digital patient education in collaboration with a large professional surgery association.

The asthma education program provided by the Allergy & Asthma Network is made available through the support of Sanofi and Regeneron.

Source: Spectrum

About Author: Mark Becker is the founder, President, and CEO of Vivacare. Dr. Becker has clinical expertise in pediatrics, dermatology, and international health and years of experience developing digital health programs to educate patients and enhance the physician-patient relationship. Dr. Becker received his MD from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine & Stanford University and BA from the Stanford University