Patient engagement during COVID-19

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Mayada Alkhakany

Boehringer Ingelheim, Germany

: J Pharm Sci Emerg Drugs

Abstract

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WHO declared COVID 19 as a pandemic on March 11 2020, with more than 174 million confirmed cases and 3.6 death cases reported in June 2021. The pandemic has had a major impact on the healthcare system and on the life of everyone in the world. All the traditional methods and tools had been changed to overcome this world crisis. Thus, patient engagement has been impacted dramatically i.e. the engagement between healthcare providers and patients or caregivers have changed from clinic visit to telemedicine, and hospitals have implemented restrictions on inpatient’s visit. Additionally, much of the research on the different disease areas had been postponed prioritizing the treatment of the COVID 19. Most of the patient organization and activities were put on hold. Different types of engagement have been introduced which have had positive and negative impacts on the patient in the treatment journey. The healthcare system was not well prepared to handle the challenges involving the patients during the pandemic Although, the healthcare providers along with technology companies and pharmaceutical companies tried to react and take an action to ensure that the patients will be able to receive a minimum care and overcome any challenges with the supply of medicines.

Biography

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Mayada Alkhakany has more than 15 years of experience working within various sectors of the pharmaceutical industry having worked across a range of key areas including clinical operation, medical affairs and pharmacovigilance functions. She was the head of pharmacovigilance in Middle East, Turkey and Africa (2014-2019) in Boehringer Ingelheim. She was an associate director of pharmacovigilance in Merck Sharp & Dome (2010-2014). She’s pharmacovigilance, policy making and leadership consultant. Mayada is a member of ISoP (International Society of Pharmacovigilance), founder and Chair of ISoP patient engagement group, Co-founder and ex-president of ISoP Middle East chapter (2015-2020). She was the chair of local organizing committee of the annual meeting of ISoP 2021. She conducted many training programs under the umbrella of ISoP Middle East Chapter and in collaboration with Arab Health Authorities. She has been invited as a speaker in many conferences both international and regional.