The technological transformations that we are experiencing today represent endless undeniable challenges and also new opportunities. Virtual Reality, for example, has become, in a short time, a very effective tool for training and learning in different business sectors, such as pharmaceuticals. Boehringer Ingelheim, a leading company in this sector worldwide, has actively worked to generate added value through innovation. Its commitment to the pharmaceutical community has led it to adapt to a digital context that is experiencing incessant changes to conceive new proposals such as With you in your pharmacy.
This reference portal for the sector, to which more than 16,000 pharmacies in our country are already affiliated (70% of all those we can find in the Spanish territory), has the main objective of providing solutions to health professionals in their daily work. that contribute to improving the health of citizens, offering content of interest, such as training and patient management tools. By bringing Virtual Reality to pharmacies, Boehringer Ingelheim helps identify current needs in the pharmacological field. It also allows access to the complete catalog of products and shows the benefits of these on the health of patients.
Since it was created more than 5 years ago, this web and e-commerce portal has been oriented towards informative and training content, such as current materials, ebooks, interactive training, questionnaires, completely free accredited training or gamified activities. Its main motivation is that the pharmacist can stay up to date with all the latest developments in the sector and obtain continuous quality information to improve patient care. The extrapolation of this content to a virtual and immersive environment allows the professional to experience it in an innovative way and “in the first person”, which has a direct effect on increasing retention capacity.
The Campreciós Pharmacy, in the Barcelona district of Nou Barris, is one of the establishments that have been able to test the virtual experience. “It has been a lot of fun,” remarks Miguel Ángel Navales Luengo, head pharmacist. “We really value very positively that different formats are sought to send us such qualitative information and real cases,” he explains.
Along these lines, Rosa María López Carneros, Director of Operations and Head of the Business Transformation Franchise at Boehringer Ingelheim Spain, says that “this experience aims to make the pharmacist the protagonist and co-pilot of a totally immersive pharmacy.” López Carneros emphasizes that the pharmaceutical company is always committed to digitalization, therefore, “through this project we intend to mark a before and after in pharmacy offices and in how the professional receives training on pathologies, drugs and news in the sector. ”.
In 2023, the company launches a project of high digital and technological value that, starting from the website www.contigoentufarmacia.com, allows access to a totally virtual and interactive environment unprecedented in the sector, which is already revolutionizing the world of community pharmacy . VR TOUR Contigo offers an authentic 360º immersive Virtual Reality experience. Thanks to the Pico Neo 4 glasses, the user is transported to a new 100% interactive and 3D environment, where they can explore every corner of a large virtual pharmacy. In it, you will find up to 7 pharmaceutical activities that integrate relevant content, designed to satisfy the needs of pharmacists in their daily lives.
Thanks to all this, the professional will be able to quickly relate the active ingredients to their respective drugs or assemble an inhaler device. He will also have the opportunity to immerse himself inside a heart to combat the ailments of vasoconstriction due to the action of angiotensins, using pills. This is not all: The virtual tool also allows access to the documentation of the Contigo website in your pharmacy in a disruptive way, taking the user inside a computer where the technical sheets of all the products are located. Another functionality shows a large screen from which the Internet user can participate in various interactive courses and access different electronic books.
In just four months of activity, VR Tour has already accumulated more than 2,000 hours of experience and has delivered more than 2,600 virtual medications. To learn more about how it works or to be able to try it in person, just register on the web portal www.contigoentufarmacia.com/vrtour. Boehringer Ingelheim has designed this experience as if it were a living organism, allowing functionalities to be added or content modified depending on the reception it has had among the participants. Furthermore, the project has a sustainable purpose, since the Virtual Reality glasses will be reused, rotating through the different pharmacies in Spain, after going through a reception, cleaning and disinfection service, before returning to the circuit.
This successful project is part of the pharmaceutical company’s determined commitment to transforming the sector through innovative technologies. Its purpose of digitalization has led it to create three areas located in Spain that provide service to the entire corporation: the IT Hub, which optimizes technological and computer services; the Global Regulatory Affairs Services Center, which provides support in the registration and re-evaluation processes of products for human and veterinary use; and the Delivery Unit, intended to support the promotion of medicines.
It has been 71 years since Boehringer Ingelheim chose Spain as its strategic site at an international level. Since then, it has evolved to be among the top 11 corporations within the hospital and prescription market in the human health sector. Last year, the company helped more patients than ever globally, reaching more than 30 million people with innovative medicines. It also intensified investments in R&D to search for new treatments, which in 2022 reached 5 billion euros.
Its intention is to continue advancing its commitment to human health, animal health and biopharmaceutical production, always placing the patient at the center of all its activity, and maintaining a solid commitment to sustainability and safeguarding our planet. The incorporation, in recent times, of new and sophisticated technological tools offers the possibility of continuing to expand these objectives, to continue assuming the great challenge of serving humanity, through the research, development, production and marketing of new drugs. that have a positive impact on our lives.