Roche develops app to improve doctor-patient interaction

The duo is banking on the ever-increasing penetration of smartphones among all age groups in the country, to use the app for more regular information sharing, and when needed, conversation with patients. The Onco App is the brain child of Ahmad Chami, Product Specialist in Lebanon and Alain Hamdan, Product Manager in the Roche Iraq team. They worked for a year on different aspects of the app, including doctor feedback, before coming up with the final product.

Alain Hamdan, Product Manager, Roche Iraq explains the application compiles all the main clinical trials for each medication, and the corresponding indications and approvals, in addition to information on the dosage and safety of Roche oncology medicines.

It is a one-stop source of information for the physician who can also enter the body weight and height of an individual patient and the app then calculates the appropriate dose needed for the patient. Furthermore, this app is user-friendly and delivers the information to the health care professional within seconds. It is automatically updated and used to send push notifications on events, reminders or any other communication to the patients,” adds Ahmad Chami, Product Specialist, Roche Lebanon.

The app, available in English, is being made available to physicians via the Apple Store and Google Play. It can only accessed by each doctor with a unique username and password. A workshop was conducted as part of the launch event where they were familiarised with the different aspects of the app. This wasn’t difficult as 95 percent of them were already smartphone savvy. Follow-ups about additional features are being made by the sales force.

The feedback from the physicians has been very encouraging. So far over 100 of them have signed up and some of the feedback they have given the team keeps them highly motivated and satisfied that they are on the right path. A leading doctor told the Roche team, “The application is very useful and will help us and our students in our daily work in the hospital.” Another called it “a brilliant idea.”

Both Ahmad and Alain joined Roche about four years ago. This is their first crack at developing an app. The services of a professional app developer company are also being used to maintain the application and work on updates that are requested by the team.