Roche Diabetes Care, from the house of Swiss major biotech company Roche, which specialises in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics is a pioneer in diabetes management. A global leader in Integrated Personalised Diabetes Management, Roche has been pioneering innovative programs for more than four decades. This concept is introduced in India last year during the pandemic by Omar Sherief Mohammad, Managing Director & General Manager Roche Diabetes Care, India
In exclusive interview with Omar Sherief Mohammad, Managing Director & General Manager, India operations of Roche Diabetes Care, LSW gets to know about this program in detail.
LSW: 1. You have introduced the concept of Integrated Personalized Diabetes Management for the relief of diabetes people in India during the pandemic last year. Can you give a brief on this program and how it is implemented in India?
Omar Sherief: Through Integrated Personalized Diabetes Management, Roche Diabetes Care offers a holistic, patient-centric approach to diabetes management to bring true relief to people with diabetes worldwide. It provides end-to-end support to patients in their disease management journey from detection to managing it on an ongoing basis through use of intuitive hardware and software tools to create a comprehensive eco-system of care. This structured and value-based therapy approach, enabled by digital solutions, is designed to overcome clinical inertia and improve therapy outcomes in diabetes.
As COVID-19 evolves in India and across the globe, we are seeing its debilitating impact, however, as recent studies and international journals have highlighted that COVID-19 outcomes have been more severe for people with diabetes . Given the bidirectional interactions between diabetes and COVID-19, our focus has been to ensure our patients receive timely information, education and access to care, required to maintain their blood glucose levels and manage their diabetes effectively.
The key challenge during this time has been providing timely and uninterrupted access to care. Our iPDM offerings provide the perfect solution to this challenge by leveraging technology to create a combination of physical and digital tools – a Figital approach - that can help bridge this gap. We leverage connected devices, services and digital products to personalized solutions in the form of integrated personalized diabetes management solutions (iPDM) that limit the progression of the disease, strengthen HCP-patient collaboration, and improve outcomes to contribute to healthcare system sustainability. United we advance the way diabetes is treated.
At a time when providing physical support was challenging, the use of a figital approach through iPDM, empowered patients to take charge of managing their condition better through regular and structured monitoring, easily sharing their reports with their doctors using the connected meters and apps. This helped doctors provide better and personalized therapy guidance leading to better therapy adherence and outcomes. This ecosystem also provided support to patients in the form of expert advice on better management of their lifestyle including food, exercise, etc. which further led to better control and overall wellbeing.
Last year we also launched Roche Diabetes Care Platform, a cloud-based digital platform to help doctors manage their patient records, provide comprehensive care based on past therapy and make therapy iterations based on their testing data.
LSW: 2. As technology has reached far into our rural areas, have you introduced this program to that area also?
Omar Sherief: One of the strongest points in favor of technology is the fact that it can transcend boundaries. With different parts of the country facing lockdowns / restrictions at different points of time, ensuring timely and uninterrupted care to patients was one of the biggest challenges. Whether it was ensuring availability of right medication or consultation, the nationwide restrictions made it very difficult for patients to receive the right care and advice.
The healthcare industry as a whole has adopted a figital approach to deal with these challenges. Use of telemedicine and teleconsultations saw a phenomenal increase starting April 2020 providing the much needed connectivity and continuity to care.
Through our iPDM solutions we have been providing care to patients and support to HCPs throughout the country. While these solutions were available, it was important to create awareness about the availability and efficacy of these solutions. To do this we undertook extensive programme that created e-engagement with the HCP community through continuous medical education programs, chat shows and online advisory programs. At the same time, we reached out to our end consumers through engaging multi-channel campaigns to educate them about iPDM offerings and digital solutions.
Having seen the efficacy of this approach during the pandemic, we believe that this figital approach is here to stay and will play a large role in changing the way care is provided in the long run.
LSW: 3. Some information on Gluco vigilance?
Omar Sherief:
It is now evident through various medical reports that covid–19 increases risk for diabetics. Moreover, we are now also witnessing the onset of newly diagnosed diabetes in COVID‐19 patients. Amidst this development, it has become imperative for people with diabetes to remain vigilant about their sugar levels and maintain a good glycemic control. We introduced a patient education initiative in collaboration with HCPs called Glucovigilance. The objective of this campaign was to drive consumer awareness and education to adopt a structured monitoring discipline. The program encourages people to practice #GlucoVigilance through four simple steps:
• Eat a balanced diet.
• Exercise regularly at home.
• Adhere to your medication as per your doctor’s prescription.
• Regularly monitor your sugar levels at home. Monitor at least 4 times per week, if your diabetes is in control or 4 times per day if you have uncontrolled diabetes.
The campaign was launched in April 2020 at the beginning of this crisis. It was adapted in multiple languages and channels to ensure that it reached both online as well as offline audiences for better reach and penetration in all parts of the country.
LSW: 4. Besides offering digital solutions, are you also looking at the therapeutic front?
Omar Sherief: iPDM, offered by RDC across the world, is a structured and value-based therapy approach enabled by digital solutions designed to overcome clinical inertia and improve therapy outcomes in diabetes. It is a comprehensive approach to therapy management that covers everything from blood glucose measurement to digital documentation and personalised treatment. It helps people living with diabetes deal with the daily challenges and strengthens the doctor-patient relationship by making it easier to track the effect of medical treatment, diet, and lifestyle changes on blood glucose levels.
The implementation of iPDM can improve glycaemic control through earlier therapy adaptations, accelerated by enhanced communication and joint decision making between people with Diabetes and their HCPs.
The latest Roche Diabetes Care Platform launched in December 2020, is specially design for doctors. It connects to “mySugr” app and allows doctors to have a better sugar-profile of their patients, in terms of food, timing, etc. this enables the doctor to provide timely personalized therapy titrations leading to better adherence to therapy and better outcomes.
With the aim to further strengthen the support available to patients and HCPs, we are also exploring partnerships with like-minded organizations to create a comprehensive eco-system of care for people with diabetes as well as screening for people who may be at risk of developing this condition.
LSW: 5. Quite expectedly, you might have generated a good response to this program due to the pandemic. How do you foresee this activity post-pandemic, which we all hope to see soon?
Omar Sherief: You must understand that iPDM is not a one-time activity or a product/solution provided to patients only during covid times. It is a sustained and holistic patient-centric approach to diabetes management to bring true relief to people with diabetes worldwide.
For chronic disease like diabetes, it is crucial to empower patients in their health and disease management to improve quality of life. It is imperative to build a support system for patients that are based on continued education and awareness about latest developments in self-monitoring of blood glucose and structured testing.
This can be made possible by iPDM and by strengthening the Figital approach that has been deployed so effectively during the pandemic. The advancement in the technological interfaces has helped connect patients with healthcare professionals and, with customized health resources and information. Reaching out physically and digitally to support HCPs and PwDs in managing the condition to derive better outcomes will be key to our success.
LSW: 6. Some information on your products
Omar Sherief: Roche Diabetes Care India aspires to connect healthcare professionals (HCPs) and their patients via stronger communication and collaboration virtually with the help of integrated Personalised Diabetes Management (iPDM) digital solutions. In order to do this in India, RDC offers a wide spectrum of hardware and software solutions.
Accu-Chek blood glucose meters, is World’s No. 1* brand in the blood glucose monitoring category through its wide range of tech-enabled products and solutions in diabetes management. With its presence across 100 different countries, Accu-Chek has been in the Indian market for the last 2 decades.
Accu-Chek, offers a wide range of ISO 15197:2013 certified glucometers to suit different types of patients’ needs. Accu-Chek Active and Accu-Chek Instant S provide support in self-monitoring of blood glucose. With Accu-Chek Active, patients get access to a trial of Wellthy Care app, which is a lifestyle management and modification program. Accu-Chek Instant and Accu-Chek Guide take it a step further to provide digital connectivity. These connected meters can be synchronized with our mySugr apps. The mySugr app allows patients to maintain digital records of their tests and share them easily with their doctors. Apart from this, the apps also provide support through lifestyle coaching by experts in managing their food, exercise, etc. thereby leading to better management of the condition.
In addition to this, our intelligent patient platform called the Roche Diabetes Care Platform (RDCP) enables HCPs to collect all their patient information and analyse this data to get deeper insights into the patient’s life. This enables them to provide tailored therapy leading to better outcomes.
LSW: 7. On future plans in the Indian market
Omar Sherief: Our plan for the Indian market is aligned to the Government’s vision of providing affordable healthcare to all citizens. To do this, we have been working with our partners and healthcare providers to create patient- cantered products and solutions for convenient, affordable and effective diabetes management.
Through our diversified Roche Diabetes, Accu-Check and mySugar portfolio, Roche has been working towards comprehensive diabetes management in India and want to help create awareness around the prevention and management of diabetes through routine testing and blood glucose monitoring. Our focus is to provide personalized solutions to help people with diabetes manage this complex condition, especially given the complications brought in by COVID-19.
We offer a holistic, patient-centric approach to diabetes management to bring true relief to people with diabetes worldwide. We leverage connected devices, services and digital products to personalise solutions in the form of integrated personalized diabetes management solutions (iPDM) that limit the progression of the disease, strengthen HCP, patient and payer collaboration, and improve outcomes to contribute to healthcare system sustainability.
The future of technology will include app based monitoring and continuous glucose monitoring systems, for better patient care.
Profile of Omar Sherief Mohammad
Omar Sherief Mohammad is the Managing Director for Roche
Diabetes Care India Pvt. Ltd at Mumbai an affiliate company of Roche
Group based at Basel, Switzerland marketing various Diagnostic
Instruments and products in India to hospitals and laboratories.
Omar has over 20 years of strong sales, marketing, projects and General
Management experience across various products & services. Omar has
been a hardcore marketing professional and is result driven
management executive with multifaceted experience in managing
sales, marketing and people.
Omar’s vision is to “Bring in true relief to patients” and is very
keen on looking into patients need in healthcare.
At Roche Diabetes Care, Omar leads a team of 250+ with complete P&L
responsibility for a high-growth in Diabetes Care covering all India
regions. He is also a core member of Roche Diabetes Region
International Leadership Team and a board member of the India Roche
Diabetes Care.