Author: julesawalters

julesawalters

MedShr celebrates 2.5 million members

MedShr celebrates 2.5 million members, democratizing medical education

2 March, 2023

London and New York: MedShr, the world’s largest professional network for doctors and healthcare professionals (HCPs), has reached a major milestone, surpassing 2.5 million members globally. This achievement marks a significant moment for the platform and its mission to democratize medical education.

MedShr is a free, online medical knowledge platform that connects HCPs to share their knowledge and skills. The MedShr app and web platform enables members to upload and discuss clinical cases, protecting patient privacy, in a trusted environment of verified medical professionals.

Commenting on this milestone, Dr Asif Qasim, Founder and CEO of MedShr, said: “We are thrilled to reach this milestone and it is a testament to the incredible work of our team, the support of our members, and the power of MedShr in democratizing medical education.  We are proud to provide technology that is a part of everyday clinical practice for doctors and healthcare professionals around the world.”

Over 200 national and specialist medical societies, Royal Colleges and Boards use MedShr to connect their members. With the launch of MedShr Learning, society partners also provide interactive online learning to their members and the global MedShr community.

MedShr’s global reach has made it a valuable resource to medical professionals in low and middle-income countries, where access to quality medical education and training is often limited.

MedShr’s unique approach to medical education has helped to bridge this gap, and its impact has been felt worldwide. Targeted global health programs have reached over one million HCPs, improving care for millions of patients.

As the platform continues to grow, MedShr remains committed to its mission of democratizing medical education and empowering medical professionals worldwide.

About MedShr 

MedShr is the world’s largest professional network for doctors, nurses and medical professionals, democratizing medical education and empowering medical professionals worldwide. With a global community of over 2.5 million members, MedShr connects medical professionals from all over the world, enabling them to share knowledge, learn from each other, and collaborate in real time.

For more information, visit www.medshr.com

[ENDS]


julesawalters

MedShr awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze at PM Society Digital Awards 2022

MedShr awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze at PM Society Digital Awards 2022

22 September 2022

  • An innovative platform that specialises in case-based HCP education stood out at this year’s PM Society Digital Awards 
  • MedShr won Gold in the category Healthcare Provider Education, Training and Support, as well as Silver and Bronze awards in other categories 
  • Its success speaks to the value of peer-to-peer learning and effectiveness of case-based education in engaging clinicians globally

Representing a novel approach to medical education, a mobile-first platform that specialises in clinical case-based education took home awards in three categories at the 2022 PM Society Digital Awards ceremony, held on 15 September in London. Standing out from the established communications agencies that make up the usual winners, MedShr secured Gold for HCP Education, Training and Support, Silver for Evolving Campaigns for Success, and Bronze for Building Digital Communities.

“The way that we engage with and support ongoing clinical education has evolved to centre around when and how clinicians prefer to access that information. We built MedShr from that perspective – the app is in doctor’s pockets and it’s all about peer-to-peer learning and the application of knowledge in the real-world,” says Founder and CEO Asif Qasim, who is also a consultant cardiologist and NHS Clinical Director.

Peer-to-peer learning has always been a crucial part of clinical practice, with doctors sharing challenging cases and learnings with one another on various digital platforms. With MedShr, the conversation has moved into a secure, global, clinician-only space that looks and feels like a social media feed – but is inherently about education and real-world application of clinical science and knowledge.

Over 2-million healthcare professionals now use MedShr, from 195 countries and across all clinical specialities. It’s this large global community of professionals that MedShr taps into to identify healthcare challenges, deliver insights and provide highly targeted educational programmes.

The annual PM Society’s Digital Awards reward innovation and effectiveness in digital medical communications programmes from across the healthcare industry. The ceremony brought together over 500 people from the pharmaceutical industry and supporting agencies to highlight the best programmes, tools and campaigns across a range of digital activities. MedShr was amongst 49 finalists and took home three awards.

MedShr’s winning educational programmes

  • Gold for a Global Health programme that reached almost 1-million healthcare professionals with education and training around the management of malaria, Chagas disease, leprosy, sickle cell disease, antimicrobial resistance, and ophthalmology. 
  • Silver for a programme around x-linked hypophosphatemia that reached over 300,000 doctors with education on the rare disease, designed to increase recognition and diagnosis of patients with XLH, and support with disease management. 
  • Bronze for a programme in haemophilia education that leveraged the scale of the platform to create an online group for education and discussion around haemophilia, attracting and engaging an active community of 600 haematologists.

About MedShr

MedShr is a secure, professional app and network for medical professionals to connect and learn through case discussion. Over two million doctors and HCPs use MedShr to discover, discuss and share clinical cases and medical images. The platform’s innovative educational approach puts focus on the application of insights from the latest scientific publications in real-world scenarios. Developed by doctors, for doctors, its speaks to specialists in their language, fostering learning and discussion about the specifics of clinical decision-making and management.

[ENDS]

julesawalters

Gamechanger for medical research – MedShr launches Docsearch

Gamechanger for medical research – MedShr launches Docsearch

21 September, 2022

MedShr is excited to launch MedShr docsearch, an AI-driven platform that analyses published medical evidence and rapidly reviews complex scientific literature. This technology is being put in the hands of clinicians and academics for the first time, exclusively through MedShr.

Described as a game changer for medical research and clinical practice, MedShr docsearch saves hours of research time, explores data in new ways and can improve patient care. The analytical dashboard shows trending concepts, influential authors, clinical trial status and much more. 

Putting Knowledge into the Hands of Physicians 

MedShr docsearch leverages custom technology developed by Dr. Evidence for drug discovery and pharmaceutical research. For the first time, our exclusive partnership puts this knowledge in the hands of physicians around the world.

The partnership integrates Dr.Evidence’s AI-powered medical search engine with the MedShr platform for physicians, HCPs, medical societies, and academics. 

“We are excited about the power that DocSearch puts in the hands of physicians to engage with the published evidence. The real-time AI insights and analysis from MedShr docsearch combined with MedShr case discussion and peer-to-peer learning will have a tremendous impact on clinical practice and patient care,” said MedShr Founder and CEO Asif Qasim, MA PhD FRCP.  

Better Patient Outcomes 

When you type a query into MedShr docsearch, the tool utilizes its powerful natural language processing and machine learning technology to generate evidence-based results within seconds. 

This means physicians and HCPs will no longer have to spend hours using multiple search engines and tools to get the type of analysis possible in MedShr docsearch. With over 40 million biomedical citations, 108 million biomedical relationships and 4.9 million medical concepts, MedShr docsearch turbocharges any PubMed search. Clinicians will be able to better understand published data, from disease symptoms to drug-adverse events, and beyond. The insights will inform and transform interventions for better patient health outcomes. 

“Since the beginning, our vision has been to democratize medical evidence,” said Dr.Evidence CEO Bob Battista, MBA, FRSPH, FRCP Edinburgh. “That starts with getting medical evidence into the hands of physicians and HCPs who interact daily with peers and directly with patients. Combining the power of the MedShr docsearch specialized medical search engine with the expansive reach of MedShr’s HCP-facing platform creates an unprecedented opportunity for putting actionable insights into the hands of physicians and HCPs, and, in turn, helping them deliver better, evidence-based patient care.”  

About MedShr™

MedShr is the world’s leading case discussion platform, connecting nearly two million doctors across 195 countries and supporting digital medical education for hundreds of national and specialist medical societies. In addition to the Trinity Challenge, MedShr has won multiple awards for technology, business and impact including Facebook’s Social Good App of the Year 2016, United Nations World Summit Award 2017, ES SME Award in 2018, London Business Award 2020, and Pharma Marketing Award 2021.  

About Dr.Evidence™ 

Dr.Evidence™ is the leading medical intelligence platform for life sciences companies that enables teams to identify breakthrough insights grounded in the vast universe of published medical information, real-world evidence and proprietary data. It pushes the boundaries of healthcare technology and allows for new possibilities in science, enabling more informed decision-making and faster time-to-market for accelerated impact. 

julesawalters

MedShr reaches milestone of two million members

MedShr reaches milestone of two million members

11 April, 2022

MedShr now connects over 2 million members and more than 200 national and specialist medical societies in our award-winning platform for doctors.

Launched in 2015 by cardiologist Dr Asif Qasim, MedShr was designed to enable doctors around the world to share knowledge, improve patient care and, ultimately, save lives. Enabling compliant case discussion and medical micro-learning, MedShr’s community grew to 10,000 physician members within the first six months, and to 100,000 within the first year. The platform is now used by over two million members. Every week, more than 10,000 physicians join us from all over the world to share knowledge on everything from rare diseases to global health challenges such as malaria.

Dr Asif Qasim, MedShr founder and CEO, said:

“What we know from talking to doctors around the world is that if guidelines tell us what to do, case discussion shows us how to do it – both in terms of drugs, devices and treatments, but also how to apply them to our patients.”

At MedShr, we now have more than 200 medical society partners. They use our platform to deliver medical education and connect their members through secure, private groups. In addition to providing their members with MedShr’s free app for compliant case discussion, medical societies engage their members through multimedia posts, polls, data, webinars, slides and interactive MedShr Learning modules. Our Chief of Growth and Engagement, Janis Pereira, has a message to our medical society partners:

“I want to say a very special thank you to our medical society partners. The work that you do through MedShr is phenomenal. The calibre of the medical education that you’re sharing through MedShr is amazing. Thank you so much for your hard work, it’s an absolute joy working with you.”

In the era of big data in healthcare, the two million member milestone signifies an important step-change in MedShr’s journey. Our newest arm, MedShr Insights, applies natural language processing, machine learning and AI to anonymised case discussions to explore trends in healthcare terms and analyse developments in therapy areas. The MedShr Early Warning System proposal was one of the winners of the Trinity Challenge, with prize funding used to help understand and identify infectious disease outbreaks. Click here to learn more about MedShr Insights and the Early Warning System.

The MedShr team would like to thank our members, Clinical Leaders, Student Ambassadors and partners for believing in our mission to improve patient care by sharing knowledge and experience. We are looking forward to seeing more of your case discussions. If you’re not yet a member of MedShr, join us at medshr.net or download the app on App Store or Google Play.

[ENDS]

julesawalters

Dr.Evidence™ partners with MedShr to enhance medical knowledge for physicians and HCPs

Dr.Evidence™ partners with MedShr™ to enhance medical knowledge for physicians and healthcare professionals

8 December, 2021

Putting Knowledge into the Hands of Physicians and HCPs

The partnership integrates Dr.Evidence’s AI-powered DocSearch medical search engine with the MedShr platform for physicians, healthcare professionals (HCPs), medical societies, and academics. MedShr was developed to enable physicians to share and discuss clinical cases, and connects nearly two million physicians and HCPs in 195 countries for medical learning. 

“We are excited about the power that DocSearch puts in the hands of physicians to engage with the published evidence. The real time AI insights and analysis from DocSearch combined with MedShr case discussion and peer-to-peer learning will have a tremendous impact on clinical practice and patient care,” said MedShr Founder and CEO Asif Qasim, MA PhD FRCP.

DocSearch generates evidence-based results from medical search queries by processing global published medical literature and real-world data, utilizing powerful, natural language processing and machine learning technology. Physicians and HCPs on MedShr’s platform will be able to leverage this technology to view co-occurring terms across the available body of literature, enabling them to better understand biomedical relationships, from disease symptoms to drug-adverse events, and beyond. The insights gained will both inform and transform interventions for better patient health outcomes.

“Since the beginning, our vision has been to democratize medical evidence,” said Dr.Evidence CEO Bob Battista, MBA, FRSPH, FRCP Edinburgh. “That starts with getting medical evidence into the hands of physicians and HCPs who interact daily with peers and directly with patients. Combining the power of the DocSearch specialized medical search engine with the expansive reach of MedShr’s HCP-facing platform creates an unprecedented opportunity for putting actionable insights into the hands of physicians and HCPs, and, in turn, helping them deliver better, evidence-based patient care.” 

“While Dr.Evidence maintains a strong position in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors, this marks our first significant expansion into clinical decision support for physicians,” stated Joseph A. Boystak, Chairman of Dr.Evidence. “Medical knowledge is rapidly accelerating in scope and complexity and doubling every several months. The need for an enhanced medical information ecosystem is essential and will be enabled by AI / ML tools such as those offered by Dr.Evidence,” Boystak further noted.

About Dr.Evidence™

Dr.Evidence™ is the leading medical intelligence platform for life sciences companies that enables teams to identify breakthrough insights grounded in the vast universe of published medical information, real-world evidence and proprietary data. It pushes the boundaries of healthcare technology and allows for new possibilities in science, enabling more informed decision making and faster time-to-market for accelerated impact.

About MedShr

MedShr is a secure, professional app and network for medical professionals to connect and learn through case discussion. Over 2 million doctors and HCPs use MedShr to discover, discuss and share clinical cases and medical images. The platform’s innovative educational approach puts focus on the application of insights from the latest scientific publications in real-world scenarios. Developed by doctors, for doctors, its speaks to specialists in their language, fostering learning and discussion about the specifics of clinical decision-making and management.

[ENDS] 

julesawalters

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

Connecting healthcare professionals globally to share experiences, spread awareness and stop resistance

18 November, 2021

The 18th – 25th November is World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health problem, with antibiotic resistant infections causing 700,000 global deaths per year. At current rates, this number is projected to grow to 10 million deaths per year by 2050. We can help prevent infections through measures such as vaccinations, improved hand hygiene, increased availability to clean water and antimicrobial stewardship in community and hospital settings.

In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed a Global Action Plan (GAP) to tackle the global issue of AMR. They urged member states to develop tailored, country specific national action plans with a ‘One Health approach’. Over 130 countries have developed their action plans to date but there is still a way to go to ensure all of these plans are implemented. We know that AMR disproportionately affects low or middle income countries where antibiotic consumption is still alarmingly high and the infrastructure to monitor infectious disease is not well developed.  

On a hospital and community level, initiatives such as simple hand washing and antimicrobial stewardship (promoting and monitoring safe and appropriate use of antimicrobials to preserve their future effectiveness) are paramount to reversing the tide of resistance. One unfortunate consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the acceleration of antimicrobial resistance as doctors over prescribe antibiotics to treat viral infections, as highlighted in a recent article from the Lancet entitled ‘Rising antimicrobial resistance: an evolving epidemic in a pandemic’.

At MedShr, we have developed Global Education Networks [medshr.it/e/globalhealth] to provide a platform for healthcare professionals to share their experiences of dealing with global-health problems such as AMR. What can you do if  there are no antibiotic guidelines in your region? This is where our community of over 1.8 million healthcare professionals can help – share a case on MedShr and discuss the best management of your patient. Through these discussions, we hope to build a network of HCPs, with a common goal to improve antimicrobial stewardship globally, impacting not just the patient in front of you but all patients around the world. 

We all have a duty to act now to raise awareness and take steps to minimise future impact. Join MedShr and our Global Health Networks to spread awareness and stop resistance. 

For free access to the Antimicrobial Resistance Education Network, doctors and other health professionals are encouraged to sign up using this link: medshr.it/amr.

MedShr also offers free, fast-tracked, registration for medical schools, hospitals and medical societies. Please contact globalhealth@medshr.net to make arrangements.

About MedShr

MedShr is a secure, professional app and network for medical professionals to connect and learn through case discussion. Over 2 million doctors and HCPs use MedShr to discover, discuss and share clinical cases and medical images. The platform’s innovative educational approach puts focus on the application of insights from the latest scientific publications in real-world scenarios. Developed by doctors, for doctors, its speaks to specialists in their language, fostering learning and discussion about the specifics of clinical decision-making and management.

 

Note to editors

Please contact globalhealth@medshr.net for more information.

About antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

“The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism.”

Sir Alexander Fleming (1945 Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of penicillin)

The following video from TedEd outlines how antibiotic resistance (AMR) has progressed over time and summarises some key ways to prevent new resistant microbes from developing. 

AMR - Where Are We Now?

In 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) endorsed a Global Action Plan (GAP) to tackle the global issue of AMR. They urged member states to develop tailored, country specific national action plans with a ‘One Health approach’. Over 130 countries have developed their action plans to date but there is still a way to go to ensure all of these plans are implemented [2]. 

We know that AMR disproportionately affects low or middle income countries where antibiotic consumption is still alarmingly high and the infrastructure to monitor infectious disease is not well developed. For example, India, one of the world’s largest consumers of antimicrobials saw the proportion of Staphylococcus aureus which are methicillin resistant nearly double between 2008 and 2014 while other countries with effective programmes for antimicrobial stewardship and/or infection prevention, saw the proportion of methicillin-resistant S. aureus decrease [3].

Investment in agriculture, safe drinking water and healthcare is vital to fight the growing problem of AMR and the Global Action Plan hopes to encourage world governments to step up to the challenge of AMR. On a hospital and community level, initiatives such as simple hand washing and antimicrobial stewardship in healthcare settings can significantly decrease infectious diseases and the use of antimicrobials [4]. These initiatives are paramount to reversing the tide of resistance. This has never been so critical as the COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated  antimicrobial resistance through over prescription of antibiotics to treat viral respiratory infections [5]. 

How is MedShr helping to tackle AMR?

At MedShr, we have developed Global Education Networks to provide a platform for healthcare professionals to share their experiences of tackling global health problems such as AMR on the ground. We are promoting good antimicrobial stewardship as an effective way to prevent antimicrobial resistance. 

Key Elements of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes [6]

  • Guideline driven antibiotic prescribing 
  • Antibiotic prescribing is re-assessed when sensitivity results are received
  • Patients are prescribed antibiotics for the appropriate length of time
  • Every member of the medical team is accountable 
  • Education on antimicrobial resistance and appropriate antibiotic prescribing is delivered to all medical staff 

If you have been involved in an antimicrobial stewardship programme, your experiences may help others on MedShr to implement their own. For those who are working in settings without antimicrobial stewardship programmes, the full text to core elements of hospital antimicrobial stewardship programmes can be found here.

We hope to empower clinicians to tackle issues such as antimicrobial resistance through sharing knowledge and expertise, as well delivering the most up to date clinical guidance and publications. If there are no antibiotic guidelines in your region, discussing a case on MedShr could help guide the best management of your patient whilst impacting other patients by protecting them from antimicrobial resistant organisms. 

Given the projection of 10 million deaths attributable to antimicrobial infection by 2050, we all have a duty to act now to raise awareness of the severity of the problem and to do something about it. Join MedShr and our Global Health Networks to spread awareness and stop resistance. 

References

[1] WHO New Room – Fact Sheet: Antimicrobial Resistance

[2] Chua, Alvin Qijia, et al. “An analysis of national action plans on antimicrobial resistance in Southeast Asia using a governance framework approach.” The Lancet Regional Health-Western Pacific 7 (2021): 100084

[3] Dixit, Avika, et al. “Antimicrobial resistance: progress in the decade since emergence of New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase in India.” Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine 44.1 (2019): 4

[4] Pokharel, Sunil, Shristi Raut, and Bipin Adhikari. “Tackling antimicrobial resistance in low-income and middle-income countries.” (2019): e002104

[5] Manesh, Abi, and George M. Varghese. “Rising antimicrobial resistance: an evolving epidemic in a pandemic.” The Lancet Microbe 2.9 (2021): e419-e420

[6] Centre for Disease Control and PRevention (CDC) – The Core Elements of Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Programs ANTIBIOTIC STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM ASSESSMENT TOOL

[ENDS]