MPC at BHF - Sun City

Medical Practice Consulting in association with Specpharm launched the Knowledge Share Database at the Board of Healthcare Funders' (BHF) annual congress, hosted at Sun City.

Specpharm's commitment to the transfer of knowledge and information between professionals in the healthcare industry quickly saw them take up the role of the official sponsor of the Knowledge Share Database as part of a project to bring the newly developed multimedia tool to the industry.

"Continuing Professional Development is fast becoming a key component of a Healthcare Professionals working career. The intention, as quoted by the South African Pharmacy Council, is mainly to ensure that persons registered remain committed to being professionals, keeping up to date and continuously seeking to improve their knowledge and optimising themselves on their career opportunities, both current and for future endeavours/undertakings.

To this end Specpharm is proud to partner with Medical Practice Consulting and support this area of continuous learning by sponsoring the Knowledge Share Database and by rolling out CPD activities via the Online CPD programme.

Education and continuous learning is a key area of investment for Specpharm both internally for its employees and externally for its customers. Specpharm supports continuous medical education of healthcare professionals and is committed to engaging in these activities into the future", says Usheema Maraj, Marketing Manager of Specpharm.

The purpose of the service is to allow healthcare professionals to share and obtain knowledge from fellow professionals, be it other doctors, nurses, dentists or any other healthcare professionals, at the touch of a button. The demand for such a feature has increased drastically and is depicted by the use of social websites, by healthcare professionals, when opinions surrounding complex matters are sought after. The advantage of making use of Knowledge Share over social sites is that public liabilities are limited, in that only healthcare professionals with a valid HPCSA/SAPC/SANC number can gain access to the database through registering a profile on the website.

Unlike social sites, which replaces comments made by users on a regular basis, the MPC database records all knowledge that has been shared and requested, for later reference and allows members to make use of a 5 - filter search engine which bases searches on any of the following criteria:

• Per topic name;
• Per publisher;
• Per publish date;
• Per ICD10 code and
• Per related key phrase

The view ability of shared knowledge is limited by the sharing member, as he/she may choose to only share with his/her own profession or with all professions.

Images and even videos can be attached to posts and the feature has been expanded to stream videos from YouTube®.

The Knowledge Share Database received a warm welcome from the industry as delegates viewed procedures performed during open-heart surgery from a Knowledge Share Post.

If you are a registered healthcare professional and wish to make use of the Knowledge Share Database, simply register a free profile and navigate to the Knowledge Share Database from the main menu.

Specpharm Holdings is a black empowered and integrated South African pharmaceutical company, with a world class Manufacturing and Packaging facility as well as a highly experienced Sales and Marketing Division.

Specpharm Holdings was established in April 2007 when it purchased the Janssen-Cilag manufacturing and packaging facility in Midrand, Gauteng as part of a BEE deal.

Specpharm currently manufactures products for a wide range of customers / clients, both local and multinational. The Specpharm Holdings site is SABS certified, meeting the following standards: ISO 9001-2008; OHSAS 18001: 2007; ISO 14001:2004. In addition to being approved by all the Local and International Third Party customers we are also approved as a Unicef manufacturing & Packaging site. The key strengths of the factory are its flexibility, well-trained staff, integrity and commitment of its employees as well as a logical facility design that supports the on-time delivery of high quality products. Our production practices and processes are designed to achieve quality results that exceed the expectations of our customers, colleagues, business partners and regulators.

Specpharm Holdings is a member of Pharmisa (Pharmaceuticals made in South Africa).

Specpharm also has in place several exclusive marketing and sales agreements with international pharmaceutical manufacturers to distribute their products in South Africa. Specpharm prides itself in its consistent delivery of high quality products (original brands and generics), and ensures that all partners are audited and meet the high standards required by the Pharmaceutical Inspection Convention Scheme (PIC/S). In addition the Company has a number of products, mostly generics, which are in the process of being registered at the Medicines Control Council.

The Sales & Marketing Department is responsible for the following business areas:

1. Private Hospital
2. Private Market
3. Tenders
4. Exports

The Head office is based at the Manufacturing facility in Midrand, Gauteng. Specpharm Holdings (Pty) Ltd is committed to protecting the Health & Safety of all employees, contractors and visitors working at the Midrand Operations Facility, also to the responsible use of the environment in which it operates. Specpharm has received certification by SABS in the following internationally recognized standards:

1. ISO14001: 2004 Environmental Management System
2. OHSAS 18001: 2007 Occupational Health & Safety Management System

Photos from the event to follow shortly...