The pharmaceutical industry leader Mundipharma Singapore announced in April 2017 that he is taking a new approach to healthcare, underpinned by a vision to harness technology. Its goal: providing game-changing healthcare solutions and deliver superior patient outcomes.
This new vision of the company has been followed by the launch in Asia Pacific of BreatheriteTM. The mobile app works thanks to various high tech devices based on augmented reality to address errors in inhaler use among asthma sufferers.
BreatheriteTM: a mobile application for asthma management based on augmented reality
In line with its commitment to invest the health tech market, Mundipharma Singapore has launched BreatheriteTM, a mobile application using augmented reality to help asthmatics to properly use their inhaler.
The launch of this app is the first initiative in the field of digital that Mundipharma unveiled publicly. The company would like as many Asthma sufferers as possible to start benefiting from its tool before World Asthma Day, heald on 2 May, 2017.
BreatheriteTM is the first digital health platform to use augmented reality together with a range of smartphone sensors, delivering a personal asthma management solution with a focus on correcting errors in inhaler technique.
The device is based on the use of multiple high tech tools
The application engages:
- a front-facing camera for facial mapping;
- an accelerometer and a gyrometer to track inhaler preparation;
- a microphone to analyze the inhalation and exhalation of the user;
- an augmented reality system to visualize correct inhaler orientation and head alignment.
Users can also schedule medication reminders, receive tips on lifestyle to adopt to improve their health condition as well as real-time weather and air quality information.
Mundipharma: a business model based on partnerships
No business model has so far been revealed regarding BreatheriteTM. The company simply stated that the application is completely free.
« Alliances are at the heart of the Mundipharma business model, said, however, Paul Medeiros, Senior Vice-President, Corporate and Business Development, at Mundipharma, in a note published on the official website of the group. we work closely with our [development and commercial] partners to build balanced, interest-aligned collaborations focused on the creation of value for healthcare systems, for providers and patients, and for all our stakeholders. »
The company’s philosophy is to be attentive to market expectations, particularly to the patients ones to participate in the development of relevant and targeted products and then ensure successful commercialization of them. The goal is not to innovate and then oping the product work but to understand the demand before establishing partnerships with manufacturers who have already proved the effectiveness of their solutions and once they are confident healthcare payers are interested in having access to them.
Mundipharma is becoming a digital health company
To create an environment in which their innovative initiatives, such as the development of BreatheriteTM, can be rapidly deployed for doctors and patients in the emerging markets where Mundipharma operates, the company has decided to transform its activities, from R&D to supply chain, to become a company specializing in digital healthcare.
Over the past two years, the group has developed mobile applications and digital devices for all its therapy areas: analgesia, oncology, oncology supportive care, respiratory, ophthalmology and consumer healthcare.
Mundipharma has been early adopters of innovative technology, such as virtual reality, augmented reality and « gamification », the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts, here in the healthcare sector.
With this new approach focused on digital, Mundipharma hopes to create efficiencies that will give it a unique point of difference on the market. This change should allow it to increase access to important medicines and enable a more patient centric approach, says the organization.
Mundipharma: a network of private entities from 51 countries
Based in Cambridge, England, Mundipharma is a network of independent associated companies which has a presence in 51 countries around the world, in Europe but also in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa and Middle East. The headquarters for these last four areas is located in Singapore.
Each company is responsible for commercialization and launching products within their own market.