The low level of awareness about RD among Lebanese doctors and the delay in diagnosis - that can reach up to 6-13 years - are leading patients to visit more than 10 generalists before they are referred to the right specialist. In order to increase the awareness on the diseases and make all doctors capable of diagnosing a RD wherever they are, an innovative mobile application was brought to life aiming at serving doctors by depicting the rare disease rapidly and easing the procedure on the patients who are longing for therapy.
Diagnosis
The user-friendly app, created by Sanofi Genzyme Lebanon relies mainly on algorithms and charts to enhance and facilitate the diagnosis of 4 different types of RD all while fully respecting the privacy of its patients (ie: only gender and age will be asked from the patients to better assess the case).
DBS request
Once the doctor suspects a RD case through the app, he may ask Sanofi for a DBS test online that will be delivered to him within 2 working days only and available for him Free of charge.
The diagnosis process is made very simple. Once logged in, the doctor is taken through a set of questions to answer based on the patient’s conditions and symptoms. The flow relies on just algorithms and charts that, once followed, will lead him to speculate the disease. Four different algorithms were set in place to cover 4 different Rare Diseases which are Pompe, Gauche, MPS-1 and Fabry.
The main App functionalities are summarized as below:
- Physician downloads the App
- Physician receives the consent form
- Physician signs and sends back hard copy of consent form
- Physician receives credential
- Physician connects to App
- Physician can:
- Open a new case
- Continue executing a saved case
- Ask for a meeting from Sanofi
- Request an enzymatic test (DBS)
- Read the notification received from Sanofi
MCE
On the other hand, the application also plays an important role in educating and updating doctors by continuously sending them the right messages on the diseases using the messaging system combined with notification alerts. Given our limited resources in terms of Headcount to cover the whole Lebanese territory, the app will help us reach doctors who are far away or difficult to reach with the same way as those located in the cities thus expanding our HCPs coverage by up to 90%.
A knowledgeable doctor is one that shares his knowledge with his patients to make their life easier. By sending doctors the right messages, Sanofi will also be levelling the support of patients through their health challenges by understanding their disease and complexity.