Hans Ardón is Costa Rican and has been based in Panama for 13 years. For more than 20 years he has been dedicated to clinical research for the development of safety and efficacy tests for drugs and medical devices. Today he is in charge of DrsBee, a remote patient care system to facilitate proper compliance with their treatment and ensure appropriate and effective drug interaction.
Hans Ardón is from the second generation of CAHI Fellows, with a sustained commitment to innovation in the health sector for the Central American region. One of the initiatives he is developing from Apololab(http://www.apololab.com/) is DrsBee, a project whose purpose is to provide remote patient care to ensure proper treatment prescribed by the doctor, as well as to prevent errors in drug interactions.
Ardón explains that "there are hundreds of thousands of interactions and this changes continuously thanks to clinical studies, safety reports, among other sources. This information is not always readily available to the prescribing professional, our task is to facilitate this data in a timely manner, so that it is considered when prescribing drugs."
The DrsBee Platform has been evolving in Central America. They currently have an agreement with the College of Physicians of Costa Rica, to ensure proper adherence and persistence in treatments, in addition to providing support to health professionals.
In addition, they have reached agreements with an important telephone company in the region, with the aim of generating a digital health ecosystem to provide support to the population, with timely information and alerts on their cell phones for compliance with their medical treatments. In this process, they have had successful experiences with various organizations, as is the case of the association of diabetic patients in Costa Rica.
These achievements constitute the first phase of a project that handles sensitive and complex information, converting it into easily understandable data for the patient. For this reason, the founder's vision includes the development of an educational line that promotes a process of continuous dialogue and learning between patients and doctors.
"We hope to soon introduce education services within the platform, so that dynamic interaction and knowledge exchange between physicians and patients can take place," Ardón says.
This was the project that led him to apply and finally join the CAHI Fellows Network. Within the program she had the opportunity to broaden her vision of Central America and connect with various professionals, entrepreneurs and social leaders, developing innovative projects to improve health in the countries of the region.
In Hans Ardón's vision, the network has been evolving and strengthening in recent years, opening opportunities for the expansion of projects under development. In his case, through interactions with other CAHI Fellows, the expansion of DrsBee to Guatemala is being considered, in addition to the continuity of its operation in Costa Rica and Panama.
These interactions provide you with valuable information about the reality in each Central American country, the institutional and regulatory framework in place, as well as better identify opportunities to implement your project in those territories.
"I highly value CAHI's high-level preparation in joining the CAHI Fellows Network, the articulation of local and international professionals, the quality of the projects and initiatives, and finally the power of the connections and collaborations that occur."
Among the most relevant lessons learned within the Network are the following:
Innovative leaders like Ardón are the core of the CAHI Fellows Network; they are the ones who make possible the sustainability and development of this regional program, by dynamizing interactions, the exchange of visions and information, to strengthen a movement that seeks to achieve health equity in Central America.
