Farminform new customer RAM Infotechnology

Photo: Luuk Renfurm, General Manager Farminform (left) and Arjan Poulissen, CEO RAM Infotechnology (right).

Healthcare innovation with data requires an ICT specialist for healthcare

Farminform has been active as a data trust for the pharmaceutical sector in the Netherlands since 1971. Over the past two years, Farminform has focused on expanding its services with (aggregated) Real World Data to help healthcare providers and companies use medicines appropriately. In order to properly facilitate these new strategic developments for the long term, a certified ICT partner was sought for the storage of medical data. RAM Infotechnology was ultimately chosen.

Farminform is a data collective with 118 affiliated companies from the pharmaceutical domain. The organization is the national standard for the delivery of user information for the Dutch pharmaceutical market. Healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies can use this to formulate effective policy based on the most recent developments. In order to expand its services with (aggregated) Real World Data, Farminform conducted an extensive selection process last year, in which various IT suppliers were assessed on, among other things, a transparent working method, high-quality security, quality of service, certification, experience in healthcare and costs. RAM-IT came through the selection process convincingly and was chosen by Farminform as a supplier.

“With RAM-IT, we have found the ICT partner that can grow with Farminform in the coming years in the field of Real World Data for appropriate use of medicines.

Luuk Renfurm, General Manager Farminform

Arjan Poulissen, CEO RAM Infotechnology, is pleased with the choice: “As a company, Farminform fits in perfectly with our mission to support and improve healthcare with ICT. The hosting platform for Farminform ensures that data can be used to provide medical professionals with better insight into optimal medication use. This allows patients to receive better, and often less burdensome, treatment and we can use the limited healthcare budgets efficiently. An excellent example of how we can support and improve healthcare with ICT.”

Social benefit

Idris Mattijssen is Business Innovation Manager at Farminform and has been involved in the selection process from the start. “This step is a fundamental change for us and is based on two wishes: As Farminform, we want to fulfil a greater social benefit and help healthcare organisations by making healthcare-related data available and linking it to enable healthcare questions to be answered. Secure data storage and data connections are essential in this respect. RAM Infotechnology not only met all our requirements, they also appeared to work with various Farminform partners such as Palga and ZorgTTP. Their experiences with RAM-IT are simply good: ‘a pleasant and expert partner’. Other plus points are the clear cost structure, data storage in the Netherlands, both in the cloud and at their own location, and the fact that RAM-IT already works for many healthcare institutions and hospitals and therefore has extensive knowledge of the healthcare market.”

“We want to be able to show completely transparently who has consulted which data and when”

Idris Mattijssen, Business Innovation Manager Farminform.

“An important aspect of RAM-IT’s services is the tracking of who consulted which data and when. For an audit, you want to be able to demonstrate this in a fully transparent and verifiable manner. Healthcare data is different data than pharmaceutical data. For example, data is stored in a very fragmented manner at many healthcare institutions. It is then complex to collect data for certain issues.

Farminform looks back with satisfaction on the past months: “The active attitude of the people at RAM-IT was sincere. They gave us a good feeling from the start by thinking along in all areas and sharing their knowledge and experience. It is positive that RAM-IT suggested that we also look at other forms of cooperation.” Healthcare data will definitely be a hot item in the coming years and RAM-IT wants to develop more broadly in the healthcare landscape than a hosting party. We are very much looking forward to how we can take innovative steps together in this area. The need for this in the market is in any case great.