Memed, a 21212 startup in our current Acceleration Program, is devoted to bringing a Health IT system to Brazil that provides efficient delivery of pharmaceutical products and cost-effective patient treatments. They created an online e-prescription platform that catalogues products providing doctors with the easily accessible clinical information to prescribe their patients the right treatments.

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Ricardo pitching at our 21212 Investor Day in São Paulo

Since Memed entered our Acceleration Program, they have seen a huge increase in their customer and product base. They currently have over 1,250 products from over 45 different pharmaceutical industries. Over 8,000 prescriptions have been made through their platform and 15% of all dermatologists throughout Brazil are registered to the site. One of the most exciting factors is that using Memed is free for pharmaceutical companies and doctors.

The idea for Memed came from typical lean startup methodology. The team, made up of three Paulistas, Ricardo, Marcel and René, identified a problem that needed to be solved. Ricardo’s brother, a dermatologist from a small town outside of the city of São Paulo, had a difficult time keeping up with the new, innovative pharmaceutical products that were being prescribed in the city of São Paulo. Due to expensive travel costs and lack of time, sales representatives from pharmaceutical companies rarely make it outside if the major cities in Brazil to present their new products, making it difficult for these doctors to stay updated with the latest and most advanced health care products on the market. This occurs throughout Brazil, however, the regions most affected are the North and Northeast .

memedmain1In addition to this problem, the Memed team also discovered that there is a surprising 75% chance of error in prescriptions made in Brazil. This percent error takes into account any mistake or communication error that could be committed throughout the entire process of prescribing a medication, from when the patient enters the hospital and to after they go to the pharmacy to collect their medicine.Throughout this time, various errors could occur from a misreading of the prescription due to illegible handwriting to a patient taking the wrong dosage of a prescription.

After careful evaluation, the Memed team came up with their solution– a platform that aims to be the main resource for comprehensive healthcare information, digitally cataloging the newest and best products and providing the information doctors need to prescribe their patients with the right medications. As a digital platform, Memed allows doctors throughout Brazil to have access to the same new innovative products no matter what region they are in. The platform also allows doctors to browse through products efficiently, making it possible to analyze various medications with the right details to prescribe patients accurately and quickly.

Memed also eliminates the risk of communication errors through illegible handwriting. Studies show that for every 100 paper prescriptions made, there is an average of 37 errors, whereas with every 100 e-prescriptions this number is lowered to 7.

Memed is currently working on expanding to be the central platform, not just for information about pharmaceutical products, but also for clinical research and communication between doctors and physicians. Medical professionals will be able to upload their own healthcare research and experiences to share with a network of people involved with the healthcare industry, facilitating communication between all regions of Brazil.  As a social collaboration tool that allows these healthcare professionals to share innovative ideas, experiences and knowledge, Memed hopes to help democratize information and improve healthcare throughout Brazil.