MIMS, a global provider of medical information, education and knowledge services, is one of the exhibitors at the upcoming SNOMED CT Expo 2021 Virtual Event, and a sponsor of the Asia Pacific Keynote Session. SNOMED CT interviewed Ms. Victoria FitzGerald (VF), Clinical Integrations Manager, Product, MIMS Australia, to learn more about the company, how SNOMED CT fits into our work and why we are participating in 2021’s Expo.
Q: Tell us a bit about MIMS and the type of work your company does.
VF: MIMS is Asia-Pacific’s leading multi-channel provider of trusted, quality medical information, medical education, and knowledge services connecting healthcare communities. Our work empowers healthcare professionals to improve patient outcomes by facilitating knowledge exchange and better decision-making. Today, MIMS has a strong regional presence in 17 countries and regions across Asia-Pacific with approximately two million healthcare professionals subscribed to its drug and resource portal, and its digital and print publications. We provide solutions to leading pharmaceutical companies and established healthcare institutions across the world. With our headquarters in Singapore and a business footprint in most Asia-Pacific countries, MIMS has an intimate understanding of the regions. In terms of the scale of audience and scope of services, MIMS has the best capability to effectively engage the healthcare professionals’ communities.
Q: Can you explain a bit about the work you do in each of your focus areas of pharma, healthcare institutions, and healthcare professionals? What types of challenges do you help them tackle?
VF: MIMS offers a range of products and services that reflect current and continually emerging advances in information delivery — mobile apps, online platforms, and data APIs. MIMS effectively partners with pharmaceutical companies to communicate and engage with healthcare professionals (HCP) through medical publications, continuing professional development programs, and medical congresses to meet HCPs’ lifelong learning needs. For healthcare institutions, MIMS offers a comprehensive knowledge-base of locally approved medicines information powered by internationally referenced clinical decision support modules developed by our expert team of clinicians. Healthcare professionals can have their pick of MIMS products and services: handy drug reference book, latest medical news and information on-the-go, easy access to e-learning activities, and point-of-care decision support tools embedded within their practice management systems.
MIMS also provides a platform between healthcare professionals and potential employers: with over two million registered healthcare professionals on our digital platform, MIMS can reach out to a community of healthcare professionals with every conceivable skill and tailor-match to the demands of healthcare institutions that are on the look-out for high-calibre practitioners.
Q: Can you discuss your connection to SNOMED CT? How does the clinical terminology fit into the work you do?
VF: MIMS has an established presence within several SNOMED Member countries in the Asia Pacific region. As the uptake and demand for SNOMED terminology has increased with our vendor partners, we have endeavoured to learn and understand how SNOMED and related national medicine terminologies can work with MIMS data to provide interoperable medicines information and clinical decision support. We are integrated with national medicines terminologies in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and we are currently part way through a project to incorporate SNOMED CT into our drug allergy and drug health clinical decision support modules. When completed, this means that MIMS will support safety checks for medicines prescribed in a clinical system where allergies and clinical findings are recorded using SNOMED CT.
Q: What kind of work have you been engaged in with CSIRO?
VF: CSIRO provides a number of tools and services to view and use SNOMED and Australian Medicines terminology within Australian healthcare. The MIMS editorial team uses the Shrimp browser extensively and we have used the Snapper mapping tool for some small local refsets. MIMS was also involved in the clinical content working group of CSIRO’s Primary Care Data Quality Foundations workgroup to support agreed common data definitions for primary care within Australia.
Q: How has MIMS evolved over the past few years and where do you see the company heading over the next decade?
VF: While MIMS drug reference books are still in demand, we have advanced over the years to meet our clients’ increasing needs for digital solutions. MIMS drug reference on mobile and web, which enable anytime, anywhere access to drug information, pill identification and drug interaction checks, are highly popular. In recent years, MIMS has introduced solutions for veterinary practitioners. For an immersive clinical practice, MIMS Integrated can be embedded into clinical information systems to perform interactive, real-time screenings against drug allergy, drug-disease contraindications, dose range checks and many more.
Moving forward, we strive to achieve two objectives in the next decade. Firstly, we want to deliver MIMS Integrated as web services to all our clients who demand it in APAC. MIMS Web Services offers flexibility in the form of user access and subscription plans, and newer features such as deeper customisations and business analytics. Secondly, with the rise of telemedicine and AI-driven health applications, we wish to partner with emerging players to deploy our MIMS knowledge bases into their systems. We believe that our localised and extensive drug data, coupled with recognition from various governments in the national usage of our data, will enhance patient quality care through these partners.
Q: Why did you decide to sponsor the APAC Keynote Session at this year’s Expo and to exhibit at the event?
VF: Being a major contributor to the digital health ecosystem in Asia Pacific, MIMS is ready to embark on the journey towards delivering SNOMED CT enabled clinical decision support solutions. MIMS is proud to sponsor the APAC Keynote Session at this year’s Expo, which is dedicated to the realisation of a shared vision of delivering better health and improved patient outcomes.
Q: What can delegates at this year’s Expo learn if they connect with you at your virtual booth and attend your presentation (October 28, 5:30-06:00 UTC), titled MIMS journey to offer Clinical Decision Solutions with SNOMED CT and national terminology sets?
VF: MIMS is excited to be participating in SNOMED CT Expo 2021. Since during these times we are unable to connect in-person, we invite you to join us virtually from the comfort of your homes to find out about our product offerings and ongoing initiatives to deliver SNOMED CT enabled clinical decision solutions. We look forward to having you attend our presentation and visit our booth!
Find out more about SNOMED CT Expo 2021