?? We are developing dosing calculators for the 30 most-viewed drugs in Germany

The indispensable Mediately mobile app, used by doctors every day, delivers trustworthy and validated drug information, interactive clinical tools, ICD-10 classification and CMEs.

As every feature of the Mediately app is developed and designed in order to deliver the best possible user experience, we spoke to Marko Nikolovski, Chief Product Officer, and Paola Bla?kovi?, UX/UI Designer at Mediately about some insights behind Europe’s best-rated application for doctors.??

The Mediately app is now used by 170,000 European doctors and is expanding to other European countries. What challenges are you facing entering the German market that Mediately will tackle first?

Marko: We’ve been working hard for the last few months developing a new version of the app for German doctors. We want to bring to them all of the benefits enjoyed by our 170,000 registered doctors in other countries. Of course, Germany is also a big challenge. There are a few German apps already available on the market and there’s a chance that doctors already have one of them installed on their smartphones. However, I think we have some great additions to the doctor’s workflow that our competition doesn’t have or hasn’t developed that well, such as dosing calculators. We are making significant efforts to develop dosing calculators for the 30 most-viewed drugs in Germany.?

Besides that, there’s a really strong emphasis on privacy. I’m happy to say that we’ve been very strong advocates for privacy since the day our company was founded. While you need to register to the app for regulatory purposes, no personal information is connected with anything you do nor do we share your personal information with anyone else.?

You mentioned one of the app’s strong points – the dosing calculators – as the first and foremost advantage in Mediately’s collection of clinical tools, as well as trustworthy content and smart design…

Marko: …in our apps, we see that doctors use dosing calculators more frequently than they consult the dosing chapter of the SmPC. Currently, dosing tools are used more than 15,000 times per month, but with the new content, we will be able to at least triple this number. Perhaps some doctors can keep all that information in their heads and can write a prescription by heart. I think that it’s easier and safer to let our phones remember that information for us to easily access later on.?

Another great feature is the app’s complete information of all drugs available on the markets in which we are present, their prices, as well as easily browsable and searchable ATC and ICD-10 tools.

Paola: Not to mention that this is all packed into an intuitive app! The whole app’s content is constantly updated and improved with the latest information, new features are added, and we employ new trends in development and design. We care about the visual aspect of our app, but even more about its usability. We want to deliver a simple-to-use product and ensure that our users completely trust the app’s content.?

We care about the visual aspect of our app, but even more about its usability. We want to deliver a simple-to-use product and ensure that our users completely trust the app’s content.

Marko, drug information is the most used part of the app and an important time-saver for doctors. Could you share some trends in regard to this aspect?

Marko: It’s very interesting to see what drugs are opened the most over time. There are seasonal drugs which crop up during the summer months, like norethisterone, or a more somber example from the past few weeks is that searches for potassium iodide spiked by almost 1,000%. From the drug info itself, doctors view the indications and dosage the most, then the packaging information including pricing, and also other drugs with the same active pharmaceutical ingredient. This is also why we’ve invested and continue to invest significant time in creating interactive dosing calculators. If we have one million views of dosing information per month, covering a quarter or even ten per cent of them with a tool in which you can get the dosing information – including changes in dosing for renal deficiency – means vast savings in time for doctors. That means doctors have more time to be there for their patients or spend less time with each patient. Also, since the calculation is done with a rigorously tested software tool, there is a much lower chance of prescribing the wrong dosage to a patient compared to prescribing solely from your head.

Localized apps are another of the company’s strengths. How do you embrace all the differences in an app to best suit every user?

Marko: People intuitively expect the same drug in different countries to be used or prescribed in the same manner. This is not the case due to different healthcare systems in different parts of Europe. Features such as dosing calculators are checked and made for each country specifically. Before the app is released in a certain country, we get in touch with local doctors to identify the country’s peculiarities. Then we listen to the feedback, read the reviews we receive on the app stores and iterate, iterate, iterate. Performing localization properly is worth it, because it is also a part of the core accessibility of the app. We’ve invested significant time in having the app support different text sizes, to support a dark mode and even screen reading technology. A blind user from the Czech Republic wrote to us with a problem regarding our drug search. We spent a week fixing the issue in the app even though our app is not aimed at the general public.?

Features such as dosing calculators are checked and made for each country specifically. Before the app is released in a certain country, we get in touch with local doctors to identify the country’s peculiarities.

Paola, every interactive clinical tool you develop is designed to be as user-friendly as possible also thanks to its clear and simple design features. What goes on behind the scenes when creating a design to deliver the best user experience?

Paola: We develop every tool in collaboration with doctors. Our medical team first goes through articles and scientific literature relevant to the tool we are developing. The next step is to write the specification document containing all the data and algorithms that will be part of the tool. This is the point when the design team enters the scene. We use a library of elements and build tools with similar user experiences to our other tools. When the design part is completed, every interactive clinical tool, certified as a medical device, has to be validated by doctors. Before we release the tool, we verify it with three doctors that will be using it during their day-to-day work. This is when we receive their direct feedback and make sure everything is clear. Fitting in a lot of medical research and knowledge in one simple and intuitive tool is our main goal.