NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / August 9, 2023 / One of the biggest challenges facing patient care is a lack of access to HCPs, which in turn leads to delays in diagnosis and difficulties retaining patients in care. The WHO estimates a shortfall of as many as 10 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle-income countries.2
In 2022, Viatris continued our partnership with the American College of Cardiology, the World Heart Federation and the NCD Alliance on the NCD Academy, a web-based, globally accessible and free educational platform for healthcare professionals at every level to improve the prevention and treatment of NCDs. We have a goal to impact 100 million patients via HCP education and outreach regarding prevention, diagnosis and treatment options for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other important chronic conditions to improve outcomes through the NCD Academy by the end of 2025.
More than 19,000 individuals have an NCD Academy account, an increase of nearly 6,000 users in 2022.3 It is estimated that these new users will positively impact approximately 15.1 million patients annually.4
While the courses provided by the NCD Academy are available to any healthcare worker, anywhere in the world, it's still important to engage actively in each country to build national awareness and drive participation. In 2022, the NCD Academy was expanded in Belgium, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland, Egypt, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and South Africa.
Through a new NCD Academy course launched in 2022, we hope to educate and inspire healthcare professionals to learn about the role their advocacy can play in supporting NCD prevention and care, share how they can set their own goals and leverage existing resources, provide guidelines on developing advocacy messaging and present opportunities to engage further with existing initiatives. Action is needed from all healthcare stakeholders to advocate for the changes needed to increase access to healthcare around the world.
The NCD Academy's cardiovascular disease course is now available in 10 languages and most other courses are available in English, Spanish and Chinese. In 2023, we expect courses to be translated in more than 10 additional languages including Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, Hungarian, Polish and Bulgarian.
A new NCD Academy course on the integration of NCD care and communicable diseases will be launched in 2023 to further develop the understanding of the primary healthcare workforce on this complex and increasingly relevant topic for patient care. In 2023, we are launching courses in respiratory disease and the social determinants of health.
We also work closely with other partners around the globe on research, education and disease awareness. These efforts are broad and diverse, reflecting various healthcare needs identified by our teams around the world. These include everything from providing education to pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to promote medication adherence, collaborating with hospitals on screening and awareness programs, to bringing together therapeutic area experts to share knowledge.
Examples of our work in 2022 include the following:
Providing HCP Education
- Partnered with the European Specialist Nurses Organization (ESNO) to work to prevent nurse shortages by supporting a survey of the current nursing pool in Europe; the formalization of the role of the specialist nurse and their professional capabilities; and the release of a biosimilars guide for nurses to enhance their skills, which will include resources in Dutch, Italian, French, Polish and Portuguese.
- Developed an online training program on preventing suicidal behavior with the Spanish Association of Primary Care Physicians (SEMERGEN).
- Partnered with major pharmacy chains in Sweden to develop HCP resources on allergic rhinitis, which is not well understood because of a lack of national guidelines to support disease management.
Promoting Access Equity
- Participated in 2022 in the CV Talk Summit attended by more than 10,000 HCPs as part of our ongoing strategic partnership agreement with the Chinese Cardiovascular Association to help improve cardiovascular health in China. Sean Ni, President of Viatris China, delivered the plenary speech at the summit.
- Sponsored American College of Chest Physicians' (CHEST) research on "Improving Health Care in Marginal Communities by building Trust Through Listening."
- Convened leaders in health equity across multiple sectors to a one-day event to review challenges and opportunities to advance the ACC Foundation's health equity mission and work together to eliminate barriers in achieving optimal cardiovascular outcomes.
Focusing on Patients
- Developed the first evidence-based exercise treatment application - Yuezhi - for dyslipidemia patients in China. Through personalized programs based on patients' health conditions, the program promotes physical exercise as an additional prevention or treatment measure. Patients who completed more than four weeks of the program reported improvements in their their follow-up cholesterol tests.
- Increased education and partnerships around multiple sclerosis, including a project titled Promoting Health Equity in Multiple Sclerosis through Personalized Care. In Ireland, we worked with MS Ireland to provide patients with up-to-date information to help them manage their disease.
- Worked with community pharmacies in the U.K. to provide education and toolkits in key therapy areas and consultation skills, ensuring patients continue to receive the best care possible. We also hosted a masterclass for HCPs in managing common conditions such as menopause, allergic rhinitis and recurrent urinary tract infections. The goal was to increase the quality of care for patients focusing on early diagnosis and treatment and prevent unnecessary referrals and repeat visits, supporting the government's Get It Right First Time program.
- Partnered with the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation to support access to reliable rheumatoid arthritis information for patients in a remote area of Okanagan Valley in Canada.
- Partnered with European Federation of Allergy and Airways diseases, an alliance of 39 patient organizations across Europe, to improve patient outcomes by advocating expansion of access to epinephrine auto-injectors for emergency use.
- Participated in the Active Citizenship Network to organize the European Patients' Rights Day and raise awareness about the unmet needs of patients during and after the COVID pandemic.
Raising Awareness
- Launched initiatives with the national health ministries in South Korea, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates to support disease awareness, screening and patient management for several of the most prevalent NCDs.
- Together with the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH), supported several initiatives in Europe to create awareness around the prevention of venous thromboembolism in medically ill patients, including communication and education events during World Thrombosis Day and a medical education curriculum.
Addressing Systematic Barriers to Access in Emerging Markets
About 86% of deaths from NCDs occur in low- and middle-income countries.1 Healthcare costs associated with NCDs are high, which is especially burdensome for low-income countries. Viatris endeavored to understand systematic issues and healthcare needs across emerging markets and launched the Mapping Actionable Beyond the Pill Solutions (MAPS) exercise in 2022. It focused on hypertension, dyslipidemia, chronic pain and depression. Critical gaps in patient awareness, screening opportunities, early diagnosis, appropriate treatment and long-term medication adherence have been documented with this initiative. Addressing these identified gaps, medical affairs teams across the Emerging Markets region initiated programs, both alone and in partnership with local and regional societies, including education materials and campaigns to support patient awareness and adherence; AI enabled early screening programs; Diagnostic tools, e.g. cardiovascular risk calculator; and experts' publications on clinical practice recommendations to improve diagnosis and treatment particularly of hypertension and dyslipidemia.
Supporting the healthcare system through capability building of frontline primary care physicians is a priority at Viatris, as these providers are typically the first, and sometimes the only, point of contact of patients within the healthcare system. Through MAPS, we are striving to address systematic barriers for healthcare in emerging markets and improve patient outcomes.
Integrating NCD Care in Patients Living with HIV
Due to the positive impact of ARV drugs, the care of patients living with HIV has dramatically advanced in the past two decades. The rising life expectancy of people living with HIV means that they are as vulnerable to NCDs just as the rest of the aging population. Building on these successes of HIV prevention and treatment, stakeholders in healthcare need to break down the silos between the treatment of NCDs and infectious diseases and take a more patient-centered, holistic approach to care of this so-called syndemic.
To advance progress in this area, we supported in 2022 the release of the paper "Long, full, healthy lives: Delivering on the commitment to integrated NCD care for people living with HIV by 2025" to identify gaps and potential solutions for integrated care of HIV and NCDs. Content included insights from the UNGA side event as well as contributions from leading stakeholders in the NCD and HIV/AIDS space including experts from the WHO, UNAIDS, STOPAIDS, NCD Alliance and Viatris. The report highlights the importance of partnerships in pursuing models of integrated screening, prevention and care for people living with HIV with or at risk of NCDs, and of capitalizing on the platform and treatment cascade already established for HIV.
To advocate and raise awareness of the importance of integration of HIV and NCDs, the NCD Alliance in partnership with Viatris organized multistakeholder events in 2022, including at UNGA and the International AIDS Society (IAS) annual conference, to discuss the issue. We've also helped develop an advocacy toolkit targeted at national/regional NCD alliances and, in 2023, will launch a new NCD Academy course on the integration of NCD care and communicable diseases.
Addressing Cancer Screening Inequities
Unequal access to healthcare can lead to low rates of cancer screening, especially among lowincome and ethnic minority groups. In January 2023, we partnered with several groups to publish a manuscript in the International Journal for Equity in Health to raise the importance of including patients, advocacy groups and empowerment organizations in implementing interventions for more equitable cancer screening. The article presents viewpoints from representatives of nine patient and survivor advocacy groups, organizations working for citizen/patient empowerment and health equity experts in the U.S. and Europe. These views include:
- The importance of not viewing screening as a single event.
- Recognizing that there are usually several and varying barriers to a person's ability to access and willingness to undergo screening.
- ndividually tailored interventions are likely to be more effective than a one-size-fits-all approach as they may better suit personal beliefs, knowledge, behaviors and preferences.
- Recognizing that targeting people who are outside of the medical care system and hard to reach are a major challenge that must be considered.
- Including professional patient advocacy groups and others in the creation of interventions at all stages of design, implementation, and evaluation is essential.
SOURCES:
1 WHO NCD Fact Sheet
2 WHO Health Workforce
3 As of Jan. 2023
4 Patient reach calculated by multiplying the number of HCP learners by the average number of patients treated, as self-reported by HCP learners upon registering for NCD Academy. Patient reach includes unique patients as well as repeat patient encounters
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