By Ifeanyi Uwagwu/Jumai Nwachukwu
In a bid to grant affordable access to diabetes care programs, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with some of its partners, notably Observia digital company in France, launched a Patient Digital Solution (PDS) under its Affordable Access to Diabetes Care Program (AADCP), to mark World Diabetes Day 2025.
The Medical Head for Sub-Saharan Africa at Sanofi, Mr Rowland Adopo, who launched the tool with his team of experts in the presence of staff and management of Asaba Specialist Hospital (ASH) on Friday, said they did this to support diabetic patients and healthcare professionals in diabetes management and as part of their commitment to the Delta State Government.
With this year’s Awareness tagged “Diabetes and Wellbeing”, Adopo posited that the tool launched will help educate the patient and help monitor the level of sugar in the body for proper healthy living.
In his words, “This tool tackles two critical aspects of patient management. The patient education and patient monitoring are key components, as you can see. For patient education, this hub will provide educational materials tailored to the five main types of diabetes patients. This material has already been approved, reviewed and localised by the national experts. This material will be available for both patients and Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) in the platform so that they can have more informed and productive interactions during the consultation.”
“We want to show that Sanofi is on the side of the patients and that of the healthcare professionals taking care of diabetes patients. So we want to show that we are a serious partner in supporting diabetes patients, which is why we launched this tool today, World Diabetes Day.”
Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, which had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Delta State Government in September 2023 to address three critical pillars in the diabetes care programme, including Healthcare Professionals, providing digital solutions and providing analogue insulin at a 50 per cent discount.
Adopo disclosed that Sanofi had trained over 200 healthcare professionals in the state and was willing to do more in that regard if other healthcare professionals indicate interest.
“We had already trained 205 HCPs through two programs: The Mentor-Mentee program for doctors and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) training for educators. While for the others, nurses, pharmacists, and educators, we also partner with the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) to give access to the nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, and educators for training. We are willing to do more. We want to make the health care professionals interested in the training.”
“Regarding the second pillar, we address the second pillar with the patient digital solution, strengthening the healthcare system. That is why we launched the Patient Digital Solution (PDS), which helps to manage patients who are far from the diabetes centre. When the patient is far from the health care system, the PDS can be a very good tool to reach such kind of people and improve their condition.”
“So as you can see, the patient will have access to content and also can record his health parameters in the system so that the doctor who is far from him can monitor his evolution if he is doing well or if he is getting worse. That way, it is possible for the health care professional to schedule a meeting with the patient to address or adjust the treatment.”
