Rum Bar teleconsultations with Pharmacists

It is estimated that only 8 of 20 CARICOM countries are on course to meet the World Health Organisation’s target of a 25% reduction in premature NCD mortality by 2025.

Heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes are the leading causes of illness and premature death in the Caribbean today.
• Most of these illnesses are caused by four modifiable risk factors: tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol.
• Intermediate risk factors include overweight, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood sugar.
• Controlling these risk factors could prevent some 80 percent of all heart attacks, strokes, and type 2 diabetes, as well as 40 percent of cancers.

In several countries the detection and control of high blood pressure is consistently worse in men compared to women. Our proposed solution with target detection and control measures in men, as well as modifying risk factors associated with the harmful use of alcohol.

The country of Jamaica is said to the have the most rum bars per square mile. Our proposal entails the use of bars, places that have  long played a significant social, economic and cultural role in Afro Caribbean commutes, as safe spaces to  measure the improvement of primary health care performance in low- and middle-income countries.

Our company is already developing non-alcoholic and nutritional alternatives to alcoholic beverages, and our proposal is aligned with our thrust to reduce lifestyle related diseases. Improve the health of their customers, can only benefit the bars’ sustainability.

It also builds on successful interventions in the African American communities of North America, which used barber shops to encourage lifestyle modification. Barbers were trained on how to refer customers with high blood pressure to physicians. In the intervention group, barbers screened patients, then handed them off to pharmacists who met with customers in the barbershops. They treated patients with medications and lifestyle changes according to set protocols, then updated physicians on what they had done.

Our proposal however relies on Telehealth, where the patients will have teleconsultations on their cell phones with pharmacists, who can then update the information to a primary health care performance database.

The target population include men in rural communities if Jamaica. This community tends to exist on the lower socio economic spectrum of the country, with limited access to primary health care services.

The solution addresses access, by utilizing cell phones to connect with pharmacists. The relatively easy access to rural bars also increases the reach of the program, and provides an opportunity to overcome barriers.

Wayne Williams, has worked to develop in digital solutions which provide opportunities for improved communication amongst lesser served communities over the past fifteen years in Jamaica. He has developed and coordinated digital story telling programs for high school students and promoted the use of telehealth through his eHealth Platform over the past year.

He is now collaborating with Pharmacists, such as Dr Dorothy Brown, to provide teleconsultations in Pharmacy Nutrition in Jamaica.

eHealth Digital is also collaborating with Mathew Denham, Non-alcoholic and Wellness beverage brand development consultant, to develop a non-alcoholic sweet potato stout, which will help to promote our message of healthy lifestyle changes.

The eHealh Digital proposed solution, can benefit significantly from additional financial as well as technical resources, especially in the area of telehealth solutions.

Our solution is innovative, in that it seeks to expand access to healthcare interventions, through the use of targeted telehealth applications, coupled with healthy lifestyle options. Most persons in rural communities, are now able to access mobile data and voice services, and are comfortable in their use of communicating via these devices.

Collaborating with persons in familiar and comfortable spaces such as bars, will also help to increase access and working with the operators provides an opportunity to serve a community which may otherwise go untouched.

The main measures of success will be a fall in systolic blood pressure and rate of cohort retention. The program will work with the Pharmacists to determine the baseline blood pressure readings of the participants, and seek to set realistic reduction targets.

It will also measure how many of the patients remained plugged into the study and care throughout the entire program.

I have already establishes an eHealth website and a collaborating with certified Pharmacists.

Our recent collaboration with a Non-alcoholic & Wellness beverage brand development consultant, is also helping us to achieve our goals of promoting healthy  lifestyle changes.

Our activities, namely the use of devices for teleconsultations, will produce increased interactions with trained Primary Care providers. In the short term, this will lead to greater access to health education with the long term outcome of reduced incidents of non communicable diseases, within a selected target group.   

Telehealth has a role in the whole spectrum of NCD care. It has a role in promoting healthy behaviors, prevention of risk factors, early detection of diseases, timely initiation of treatment as well as monitoring and follow-up support. 

Rural access to telehealth also provides underserved communities, the ability to seek healthcare support, in real time.

Certified Pharmacists will collect the data. They will be initially paid a stipend by the program, and will be further incentivized as patients can be converted to future clients, as the program expands.

All members of the team are members of a minority community. They are Afro Caribbean and two members are women.