This is the third episode of a short series about South America for Faces of Digital Health. After a glimpse into Colombia with Javier Andres Cardona Mora, Argentina with Adrian Turjanski, Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão talks about Brazil and OTWonco is a centralized multidisciplinary EHR combining predefined clinical pathways and protocols with TNM staging (widely used cancer staging system.) and molecular markers for personalized decision support:
“Brazil has 209 million people. It is the fifth most populous country in the world. Since 1988 a health for all universal and comprehensive access to healthcare was established. The system is good at its core, says Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão, who is the CEO of OTAWA Health. However, the public healthcare system lacks investments. “This resulted in a decrease in the number of beds in hospitals. Patients face challenges with healthcare access, access to medication, and consequently, those who can afford it, pay for private health insurance. There are 47 million people that have private health insurance,” says Paulo Fernando Buarque de Gusmão.
An EHR made by medical specialists for specialists
OTAWA Health was officially founded in 2019, but in fact, the group of developers that work in the company, have been working on the product since 2007 at one of the most respected oncology clinics in Brazil – Centro de Combate ao Câncer. The team developed a comprehensive EHR for the continuum of cancer care management.
A group of developers works closely with a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals: oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and psychologists. Their product – OTWonco is a centralized multidisciplinary EHR combining predefined clinical pathways and protocols with TNM staging* and molecular markers for personalized decision support.
The solution efficiently helps professionals on their daily care routines. It also aggregates health information on a very rich data set for real-world evidence analysis.
The company’s vision is to bring the oncology health record to underserved areas of the world, especially other parts of South America and Africa as universal healthcare cannot be universal while the huge gap between health technology assessment in use by high-income and low-income areas remains.”
*The TNM system is the most widely used cancer staging system. Most hospitals and medical centers use the TNM system as their main method for cancer reporting.
