Addressing health literacy with ‘What’s my Drug?’
North East-based company, Mistura Informatics, has created a groundbreaking digital product, ‘What’s my Drug?’. It is a unique digital product which helps patients view simplified health information written by experts.
Health literacy levels in the North East and North Cumbria are typically lower than other parts of the country, with 62% of people struggling to understand health information with words and numbers. Poorer health outcomes are also linked to lower levels of health literacy. The average reading age is 9-11 so we need to support patients to understand their health better. This is a key priority for our region and the Integrated Care Board.
People with low health literacy:
- are more likely to die younger
- are more likely to have long-term conditions
- miss appointments more often
- find it hard to take medication correctly
- feel worried and angry
- struggle to look after their own health effectively
The opportunity to improve health
Founders Dr. Dawn Price and Professor Steve Bazire have extensive experience in pharmacy research, and saw the opportunity that an innovation like this could make. If patients take their medicines, it helps keep them safe from preventable harm. Up to 10% of A&E admissions are medicine-related harm so its vital people understand how to take their medicine correctly.
Their innovative solution, ‘What’s my Drug?’, is a subscription-based web application that provides patient information in an easy-to-understand format. Users access the web app using their smartphone. The information can also be presented in 22 different languages. What’s my Drug? helps patients to understand their medication better and supports them to take them safely. It also helps save clinical time as the key information is more easily understood, so healthcare professionals don’t need to explain the key points to patients.
Speaking on the Innovation in Healthcare podcast, Founder, Dawn Price said, “With over 30 years clinical experience, I was always finding challenges in providing simplified information to people about their medicines, and particularly where there were communication challenges. To address that gap, to improve safety, reduce harm, I co-founded Mistura.”
Innovator support from HI NENC
Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria (HI NENC) has supported the company by helping them to pitch, position and market their offer to NHS organisations in the North East and North Cumbria.
HI NENC has supported the company to achieve Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) compliance which is a mandatory requirement of all digital products sold into the NHS. DTAC compliance ensures any new technology is safe and benefits patients.
Efforts are underway to further expand the reach and support of ‘What’s my Drug?’ by connecting its innovators with regional Health Innovation Networks across the country. The Mistura team was recently invited to join a delegation to Romania, led by HI NENC chair, Professor Dean Fathers. The aim of this visit was to explore potential internalisation opportunities.
On the trade mission, they met hospital leaders, researchers at Romania’s universities and business leaders in medtech and healthcare innovation. Meeting these different groups gave the Mistura team a better understanding of how they could develop the product into a new country.
Speaking to HI NENC Chair, Dean Fathers on the Innovation in Healthcare podcast, Dawn said: “Becoming part of a trade mission where you can, be introduced to the right people and understand the infrastructure from a perspective of a business was the ideal opportunity that came along at the right time and of course medicines are the same all over the world, slightly different names, but they are the same medicines.”
This has led to a pilot project being set up in collaboration with a university and a hospital in Romania to test the product there too.
Rachael Forbister, Programme Manager at HI NENC said: “At HI NENC, we are committed to supporting innovators who are developing transformative healthcare solutions. Mistura’s ‘What’s my Drug?’ is a perfect example of how we can assist companies from concept to market.
“By providing crucial support in areas such as pitching, positioning, marketing, and compliance, we ensure that products not only meet the highest standards of safety and effectiveness but also reach the patients who need them most. Our collaboration with Mistura highlights the significant impact that tailored support and guidance can have on reducing health inequalities and improving patient outcomes.”
For more information, please visit Mistura’s website or listen to the full podcast episode 10 – ‘Internationalisation – The Importance to Innovative Healthcare’.
If you are a healthcare innovator looking for support, please contact [email protected]