Developed in partnership with content provider PT. Jatis and the Anti-Fraud Insurance Indonesia (LAFAI), the service allows subscribers to obtain information on a range of pharmaceutical products by sending a message to "9333".
For example, patients requiring an alternative to Vomitrol (the patented, designer drug) would text: “OBAT Vomitrol”. They will receive an SMS reply containing the name of the alternative, generic drug, the dosage use, type of packaging and the price of the drug. Customers are charged IDR 500 (about $0.05 USD) per SMS sent. The program was launched in an effort to fill the information gap between the pharmaceutical industry, healthcare providers, and their clients, especially with regards to the drug options available to the client.
The drug database used in the program was intentionally built as an advisory tool for insurance companies to minimize the risk of fraud due to the information gaps that exist on pharmaceutical drug option and their prices.The fact that drugs represent a significant component of the health industry and are crucial to outpatient care makes the ability to access drugs at affordable prices critical for Indonesian patients.
Jatis/Lafai, together with Telkomsel, provide information about more than 11,000 types of medicines, enabling their customers to obtain the price estimates for generic equivalents to commonly prescribed drugs.
In the future, Jatis is looking into USSD to get a faster response rate (they have known SMS to take up to one hour). They are also exploring the option of making a simple application for basic smart phones to allow for more interactivity and a medication history database.
