Access to quality healthcare remains a challenge for many people living in remote communities. One contributing factor is the continued dependence on paper-based medical records, which can make it difficult for healthcare professionals to access complete and up-to-date patient information.

This challenge has been particularly evident in rural Argentina, where doctors have had to manage patient records across considerable distances. Paper documents could become incomplete, dispersed or difficult to transport, making it harder for physicians to maintain a reliable medical history and provide consistent consultations. Moving healthcare records to secure digital systems can help overcome these barriers while also strengthening the protection of sensitive patient information.

To address the issue, Boehringer Ingelheim is collaborating with La Higuera, a nonprofit organization focused on providing primary healthcare to people in rural communities. Together, the organizations are working to transition from traditional paper files to a digital record system designed to make medical consultations more efficient and improve continuity of care.

The initiative is converting patient records into digital formats and introducing secure methods for managing healthcare information. In addition to simplifying administrative processes and reducing the amount of paper used each year, the project is helping healthcare professionals maintain better records of patients living in geographically isolated areas.

Eduardo Sorlino, General Manager at Boehringer Ingelheim, explained that patient information had previously been maintained entirely on paper, requiring documents to travel long distances. This created a significant risk of losing or compromising important details in patients' medical histories.

Boehringer Ingelheim has supported the project through the involvement of 20 employees who contributed their time and expertise. The company also provided two computers and specialized software development assistance to help establish the digital system.

By replacing fragmented paper records with a more accessible and secure digital approach, the initiative aims to make healthcare delivery more organized and reliable for communities that face significant geographic barriers to medical services.

Dailycsr.com – 17 December 2017 – At Pfizer, they don’t differentiate between their “business and societal missions”, whereby ensuring an access to “quality medicines, vaccines and healthcare” on an individual scale across the globe in order to provide “the opportunity to lead healthy lives”.
 
With the help of “its full resources”, including “people, products and funding”, the company strives to undertake “new ways” to create a positive impact on people’s health all over the world. Putting aside, the “traditional philanthropic” corporate ventures of donations either in cash or kind, Pfizer sides with the global changing scenario and aims at building on its “current footprint of programs” with new solutions and approaches catering locally to the needs of every community.
 
Pfizer needs to reach out to patients in a faster manner under a “sustainable infrastructure” with a careful measure of uncompromised safety and quality. Moreover, Pfizer collaborated with its partner to “take measures approach” with “analytics and research resources” for gathering “outcomes data before launching at scale”. Pfizer is careful to evaluate nearly each of its efforts towards improving “global health” through “pilot programs”.
 
Here is a list of some of “these programs”, as mentioned by Ethical Performance:

 
 
In an attempt to take forward developing world’s women and children’s health, Pfizer has set up its “Global Health Innovation Grants” that supports “social innovations” aims to “improve health delivery”. One main method of arriving at these goals is to finance “women entrepreneurs” and “technical assistance” so that they can “grow their business”.
 
One of Pfizer’s Indian venture delivers “appropriate” women “health products” in an areas that are low on resources, as a part of the same initiative the company has started “$3 Clean Birth Kit” that provides “essential components” for a “safe and hygienic birth” as approved by the World Health Organization. While, Ethical Performance informed:
“Pfizer’s support has helped ayzh to expand its services in India, including hosting empowerment camps to directly engage approximately 1,000 pregnant women to date on the elements of a healthy and hygienic birth. Additionally, the program will help fund the creation of two additional manufacturing and distribution hubs that employ local women, and is expected to impact the lives of 18,000 mothers”.
 
Moreover, Pfizer covers the region of Kenya under its wing of “Jacaranda Health” that caters to the “underserved women” in the region of “maternity hospitals”, as:
“Jacaranda’s work is focused on improving the critical capacity and skills gaps that can be an impediment to quality care”.
 
In Rwanda, Pfizer has expanded its presence through “One Family Health” healthcare chain to deliver affordable yet quality “primary healthcare”. Additionally highlighting Pfizer’s involvement in eradicating diseases as the company donated for “an antibiotic” in partnership with ITI, Ethical Performance also added that:
“After more than six decades of fighting the spread of trachoma in Morocco, on November 14, 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged that the Moroccan government has eliminated the infectious cause of blindness as a public health problem”.
 
The PhD, programme director of ITI, Paul Emerson, on Pfizer-ITI partnership, said:
“It’s an integrated approach. We’re always looking across all the countries for examples of innovation and entrepreneurship, where hygiene promotion, production of soap, sanitation, school-based programs, and so on, are being used in different and innovative ways in order to reach more people.”
 
Pfizer’s “holistic approach” sets it apart amid organisations “representing governments, global health agencies, academia and advocacy organizations”. As a result, the company combines its financial and product supports with every “other resources” that t possesses.
 
 
Moreover, the general manager as well as the president of Pfizer Vaccines, Susan Silbermann, added:
“Pfizer is proud of the significant impact that our vaccine and our partnerships with many humanitarian organizations have had on public health across the globe. Only by putting the needs of refugees at the center can we all work collaboratively to help prevent disease in some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.”
 
 
References:
ethicalperformance.com