Abdi İbrahim Launches 2 New Mobile Apps for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Abdi İbrahim announced that it has developed two separate mobile applications to facilitate the lives of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients and their relatives who cannot leave home during the new type coronavirus outbreak. These mobile applications, which feature intelligent symptom tracking for Parkinson's patients and answers to frequently asked questions about the disease for Alzheimer's patients and their relatives, provide comprehensive content free of charge, ranging from practical information about the diseases to necessary exercises. Abdi İbrahim's General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Dr. Oğuz Mülazımoğlu, drawing attention to the fact that communication in the triangle of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients, their relatives and hospitals was necessarily restricted during the COVID-19 period, said "With these mobile applications, we aim to provide time savings to our physicians who are going through very busy days due to COVID-19, and easy monitoring and regular information to our patients and their relatives." Abdi İbrahim, which has led the growth and development of the pharmaceutical sector in Turkey for 108 years, has launched two separate mobile applications featuring intelligent symptom tracking for Parkinson's patients, through which patients can access non-pharmacological methods such as physiotherapy, nutrition, and facial and breathing exercises, and for Alzheimer's patients and their relatives, containing all the information needed regarding the disease. Parkinson'da Yanımda, a first in its field, supports practical monitoring and analysis of patients' daily and weekly conditions, while enabling patients or their relatives to respond periodically to questions in the application without restricting their daily lives and to share the records with their physicians. In the Voice of Alzheimer's application, prepared by experts and containing very important contents for patients such as security, personal care, nutrition, sleep patterns and risk factors related to living with Alzheimer's patients, people's questions about the disease are answered through videos. This application, which can also be used offline, forwards unanswered questions to specialists, and the received answers are uploaded to the application as short videos to help meet patients' needs.

"Parkinson'da Yanımda application provides time savings for physicians and easy monitoring for patients"

Abdi İbrahim's General Manager of Sales and Marketing, Dr. Oğuz Mülazımoğlu, providing information about the applications, emphasized that they decided to develop mobile applications based on the needs of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients who stayed at home, particularly due to the coronavirus outbreak, but whose treatment could not be interrupted. Noting that the COVID-19 outbreak has added new responsibilities to everyone's existing duties, Dr. Oğuz Mülazımoğlu said, "As Abdi İbrahim, during this period when most of us stayed home, we launched our applications to be of greater benefit to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients and their relatives who need to continue their treatment. During this period, some of our Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients aged 60 and over cannot visit hospitals and therefore cannot receive health information from their physicians. Thanks to the Parkinson'da Yanımda application, patients' daily and weekly conditions can be monitored, and their treatment is supported with nutrition and exercise recommendations. With this first-of-its-kind application, we aim to provide time savings to our physicians who are going through very busy days in the fight against COVID-19, and easy monitoring to our patients and their relatives. In the Voice of Alzheimer's application, we hope that patients and their relatives can find answers to all their questions about Alzheimer's. These applications will save time for both patients, relatives, and our physicians. Moreover, there will be continuous communication among them," he said. Noting that Abdi İbrahim's success spanning over a century is backed by a strong Research and Development and innovation infrastructure, Mülazımoğlu pointed out that the restricted daily life and interrupted physician consultations due to the outbreak are critical for some patients, saying "We combined our digital capabilities and experience and developed these free-to-download, easy-to-use applications. Our goal is to help our patients and their relatives maintain a healthier lifestyle during the outbreak period and ensure that treatment is not interrupted. We are pleased to make a pioneering work in its field with these applications," he said.

"Contributing to building a healthier relationship between patient relatives and patients"

In recent years, as in the world, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are among the most common diseases in the elderly population in our country, and monitoring the course of the disease and access to current information about the diseases are among the most important matters. In our country, which has approximately 150 thousand Parkinson's and 600 thousand Alzheimer's patients, the responsibility for monitoring the disease course and care falls heavily on relatives. For this reason, the existence of innovative solutions is of great importance in patients' treatment compliance. With the Voice of Alzheimer's application prepared for Alzheimer's patients and the Parkinson'da Yanımda application prepared for Parkinson's patients, it is aimed to provide many benefits to patients, their relatives and physicians. The Parkinson'da Yanımda application, designed to take up minimal space in phone memory, can be personalized by answering questions posed to patients. The information recorded by the application can be shared with physicians, thereby maintaining patient-physician communication. With the application, it is aimed to support the care process, which is difficult for patient relatives. Thanks to the physiotherapy recommendations to increase balance and coordination, facial and breathing exercises and nutrition recommendations included in its content, a healthier relationship between patient relatives and patients and a treatment-compliant process are supported. The Voice of Alzheimer's application, which is extremely easy to use, allows patients and their relatives not to have to go to the hospital to learn about subjects they are curious about. Through the application, they can find neurology hospitals in their province or district, and through notifications, they can stay informed about developments regarding the disease or their patient. This application, which provides convenience to patients and their relatives, also provides great ease to physicians who think they cannot spend as much time as they wish with their patients in busy polyclinic settings.

"Contributing to patient socialization"

The Parkinson'da Yanımda application includes a tremor (hand tremor) test that was not previously included in other applications in terms of technology. The application can measure the severity of tremor seen in 80 percent of Parkinson's patients. With content such as the quote of the day and the song of the day included in the application, Parkinson's patients, who have a very high rate of depression and for whom socialization is important, are enabled to enjoy their time. The aim is for patients to share daily quotes and songs published on the mobile application screen with their relatives, thereby increasing socialization and keeping them engaged in life. The completely free-to-download applications can be accessed through the App Store on mobile devices with iOS operating systems and through Google Play on mobile devices with Android operating systems.