HealthBeacon develops software platform for cancer medication

Dublin-based medical technology company HealthBeacon has developed a new software platform to help cancer patients take their medication more safely.

The “global patient safety platform” has been developed over the last two years in collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry and has been recently approved by regulators in both the UK and Ireland.

The company, which floated on Euronext Dublin last December, said the product is scheduled to launch in Australia and New Zealand.

The platform is designed to replace a paper-based system to ensure the right people get access to the right drugs and drive down the cost of administration.

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HealthBeacon, which was founded in 2013 and is led by chief executive and co-founder Jim Joyce, said the platform will create a new recurring revenue stream for the group, where pharmaceutical manufacturers pay a licensing fee for access to the system.

This would help them meet their regulatory requirements and ensures access to critical medications. HealthBeacon anticipates the technology will support more than 1,000 patients by the end of 2022.

To date, more than 800 pharmacies have already adopted the system across Ireland and the UK and 12 pharmaceutical companies have bought licenses to replace their paper-based system with HealthBeacon’s software.

The first drug to be prescribed on the platform is lenalidomide, used to treat certain cancers.

If lenalidomide is taken during pregnancy, it poses a risk of birth defects. Using a series of electronic checks and balances, HealthBeacon’s platform is designed to ensure the medication cannot be dispensed until a set of agreed safety protocols have been validated.

Ultimately, according to the group, the platform reduces the potential for human error associated with traditional prescription methods.

In Ireland, the system is approved by the Health Products Regulatory Authority and has been whitelisted by the Health Service Executive, meaning it can directly contact every pharmacy in the country.