Apollo to launch drug database

The Apollo Hospitals group would launch Hipaar (Healthcare India pharmaceutical registry), a drug database for its patients and doctors for reference.

Through this process, a person can know whether she has been prescribed the right medicine or not. It also gives information on side effects, K Ganapathy, president Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation and president of Telemedicine Society of India, said.

A person can send a text message from his/her mobile phone with patient name, main diagnosis and the drug name to the database, Sangita Reddy, executive director (operations) Apollo Hospitals group, said.

The database so far has listed around 3,000 commonly used drugs. “The database is now at validation and testing stage,” he said.

Apollo is organising a three-day international congress on patient safety here from April 21. Around 120 speakers from across the globe would participate.