MedXchange – the Platform for Rational Drug Therapy

MedXchange is an innovative platform based on manual, automated and IoT data collection and processing, providing information on the content, effect and interaction of various substances in drugs and related products. Its purpose is to assist the whole continuum of medical treatment and provide its users with insights into their drug therapies.

MedXchange has an intuitive design and can be used web-based and as a mobile application with a responsive design for desktop, mobile and tablets.

The development of the application has been financed by the European Regional Development Fund.  

The Consortium

The stakeholders for this project are ICB represented by the development team, project manager, financial manager and CEO and the European Union (EU) as the project sponsor, represented by the commission that was steering the project.

ICB implemented the “MedXchange – a platform for rational drug therapy” project under the Grant Agreement BG16RFOP002-1.005-0110-C01 under the procedure “Development of product and production innovations”, Priority Axis 2: Technological development and innovation, Specific objective 1.1: Technological development and innovation. The project is implemented with the financial support of the Operational Program “Innovation and Competitiveness” 2014-2020, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

The Challenge

We have noticed that there is a very niche need that is becoming a gap in modern-day medical treatment. Doctors and patients cannot keep track of the medicines and drug interactions. Therefore when a doctor prescribes a medicine to a patient that already takes pills, the doctor cannot know if there is a negative interaction between the active ingredients of the pills and the newly prescribed medicine. Furthermore, it is a must for the patients to keep track of the order and time interval of the intake of the medicines. Otherwise taking a large number of drugs without regular medication reviews can have a devastating impact on quality of life and patient safety, especially in older people.

We needed to create a platform that:

• Resolves the issue with drug interactions
• Finds appropriate information about medicines
• Send medicines intake notifications
• Allows monitoring medical treatment of elderly members of the family

Our Solution

Our care about the impact on the mental and physical health of the people influenced and drove us to develop the MedXchange platform.

We also built on our know-how in developing software that complies with EU regulatory requirements. Our previous experience covers two projects funded by the Seventh Framework Program:  ChemXchange (2009-2012) and ProductInfoX (2013-2015). We gained knowledge in the development of information systems for manufacturers and distributors to create functional, scalable and effective solutions for working with large volumes of product data. This experience gives added value to the successful creation of MedXchange.

MedXchange Functionalities

We addressed real everyday needs that affect our health and included them in the functionalities of the platform.

1. Medicines information

• Contains description, side effects, dosage, interactions, professional information, and leaflets;
• Shows compatibility of the medicine other indicators such as driving, work with machines, pregnancy and lactation;
• Explains Interactions with other drugs, diseases, food, and beverages show us whether they are major, moderate, minor or unknown.

2. Interaction checking

With this functionality the user can check what the interactions of the medicine are with other medicines, diseases and indicators such as driving, using machines, pregnancy and lactation.

3. Medicines notifications

In MedXchange, the users can set up notifications (alarms) for medicines. These notifications are sent on email or as “push” notifications on a phone. Notifications can be set up as one-time-only or recurring over a certain period.

4. My family

Most people experienced having old grandparents who suffered chronic diseases and had to take a lot of medications. With this functionality, the users can add data to other profiles such as family members. For each member, we can specify:

• Personal data – sex, blood group, height, weight, etc.;
• Medicines he takes or has taken;
• Diseases he has or had;
• Information from this data can be used in the interaction tool by selecting the family member account.

5. My Medicines

Each MedXchange user can manage a list of medicines he takes or has taken. Each medicine has a history that includes period, dosage and frequency of intake. Users can set up notifications (alarms) for these medicines.

6. My Diseases

This functionality allows the users to add, edit, or delete diseases that they had or currently have, and also to add history about them as a period and some comments.

7. My Prescriptions

In “My Prescription” functionality, the users can add, edit and delete information from prescription they have from a doctor or a healthcare facility. A list of medicines and diseases can be added to prescriptions. Also, users can add notifications to every medicine in the prescription.

8. My conditions

Each user can manage different physical characteristics for his current condition, such as weight, height, blood pressure, heart rate, etc., for a specific date and check them in different period of time.

MedXchange has additional features such as:

• A mobile application for identifying product data for medicinal products and related products. The application will be able to make an immediate connection between the product offered on the market and the information about it.
• Option for creation of a health profile/notebook, as well as the integration of existing ones in which to store the medical and social history of each patient, to chronologically reflect examinations, prescribed therapies, tests, reactions and more.
•  Disposal of expired drugs module – to protect the environment, the application contains a module that informs about the most harmless way to throw away expired drugs and also locations where the drugs can be handed over.

Standards Followed

The information about the medicines provided in the MedXchange platform complies strictly with the following standards:

1. Diseases standards – International Classification of Diseases ICD-10

2. Medicines standards – ISO IDMP

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is implementing the standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the Identification of Medicinal Products (IDMP). These are five standards that provide data elements and structures to uniquely identify and exchange information on:

• Substances (ISO 11238);
• Pharmaceutical dose forms, units of presentation, routes of administration and packaging (ISO 11239):
• Units of measurement (ISO 11240);
• Regulated pharmaceutical product information (ISO 11616);
• Regulated medicinal product information (ISO 11615).

Technologies Used

MedXcahnge is a progressive web application (PWA) that looks like a mobile application. Progressive web apps are websites, but they get the experience of using a mobile application, without the need to download and install them.

The system is developed with the latest technologies providing compatibility with various browsers and dynamic and user-friendly design from both PC and mobile devices. The architecture allows fast scaling, ease of maintenance and ease of development. The use of the best practices and design templates adds reliable security, the resilience of the system in case of conflict events, modularity with low interdependence and a high level of performance.

• Front-end: React, Redux, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Material UI, PWA (Progressive Web Application)
• Back-end: C#, .Net Core, WebAPI, Entity Framework Core
• DataBase: MS SQL Server
• Communication: HTTPS, JWT

Targeted Benefits

MedXchange is expected to bring great value by helping the medical treatments. Its user-friendly experience and basic functionalities make it a valuable assistant for ordinary people as well as for medical personnel and pharmacies.

MedXchange strongest features are that the tool:

• Provides detailed information for medicinal products;
• Has a tool for checking drug interactions;
• Can send and receive notifications for our medicines, which we are taking;
• Allows for the care of elderly family members;
• Environmental responsible application.

If you are interested to get familiar with MedXchnage yourself, visit https://medxchange.icb.bg/