When prescribing a new drug, medical professionals first have to check interactions with other drugs the patient may be taking. Health care professionals must also have the most up-to-date drug information when making treatment decisions. Currently, Ukrainian doctors look for drug interactions in books, pamphlets or online. This time-consuming process can lead to unintentional errors.

The 2030 Ukrainian Healthcare System Development Plan identifies the development of digital health as one of the goals of health care management in order to improve access to reliable health data and support evidence-based clinical decisions.

The pilot project was designed in Ukraine by the Estonian health technology company Synbase, the Ukrainian medical software developer Doctor Eleks, and the charitable organization of the Medical Clinic of the Catholic University of Ukraine. The Estonian Center for International Development (ESTDEV) awarded the project €117,000 during its most recent Ukrainian application round.

4,000 Ukrainian doctors participating in pilot project

The project developed a special digital service that uses algorithms to check a patient's digital prescriptions and sends an automatic warning to a health care professional in the event of clinically relevant interactions.

"Since all the data runs through medical software, this service supports doctors when making time-critical, evidence-based decisions," said Siim Nahkur, a Synbase board member.

"This service, which is already integrated into the National Drug Register of Ukraine, collects data on drugs registered in Ukraine and includes drug warnings translated into Ukrainian. In addition, the doctor will have access to a web portal where they can read about possible side effects."

The service will be available to 4,000 Ukrainian doctors until the middle of next year. "Since Ukraine is currently implementing a national digital prescription, the goal in the coming years is to cover ten million patients with the drug safety service. The Ukrainian drug interaction service is also compatible with digital prescriptions," Nahkur said.

According to Nahkur, "This initiative is part of the company's goal to provide effective and easily accessible health care solutions to Ukraine, where they are needed most."

Estonian expertise

Andres Ääremaa, program manager for Digital Transformation at ESTDEV, said that supporting the digitalization of public sector services is one of the cornerstones of ESDTEV's Ukrainian portfolio.

"The creation of the drug interaction digital service supports the Healthcare System Development Strategy 2030, which focuses on the interoperability of health data and integration with international evidence-based medicine. We can offer Ukraine the best Estonian expertise in developing health technologies through our development cooperation," said Ääremaa.

The Estonian drug interaction service was developed by Synbase in cooperation with the Health Insurance Fund in 2016, receiving the Estonian Quality Association Annual Award in 2016 and the European Quality Innovation Award in 2018. The service is available in five European countries in addition to Estonia.

"Similar to the drug interaction service implemented by the Health Insurance Fund, Ukrainian doctors can now also use the drug interaction service, which helps increase the evidence-based nature of decisions and drug safety in general," said Nahkur.

The project will run until the end of 2024.

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