2024-10-09 16:44:00
Cinfa laboratoriescompany with 100% Spanish capital and with 55 years of experience, has started a pioneering project in the global pharmaceutical industry to incorporate NaviLens technology into its medicines and healthcare solutions, which will increase their accessibility for people with visual impairments. For this reason it is inserting specific codes into all its cases and leaflets which, through a free application and through the use of accessibility tools and the mobile phone camera, allow the mobile phone to read and transfer its information with the voice information, so that it is also accessible to blind or visually impaired people.
Specifically, these NaviLens codes provide essential information such as the name of the medicine or product, its presentation, the expiry date and the batch number, in addition to the complete contents of the package leaflet, essential data for all people, including those with visual impairment, they can, can correctly benefit from their treatments in a comfortable and autonomous way.
Julio Maset, corporate scientific director of Grupo Cinfa, highlights: «When we learned about the NaviLens technology, it was clear to us that we wanted to implement it in all our medicines and healthcare solutions. A project which, in line with our aim, allows us to move forward to make health accessible to all people. In this way we hope to pave the way in the pharmaceutical sector for more and more companies to incorporate these solutions and, together, we continue to work towards accessibility and inclusion.
Cinfa has been working for a year and a half on the validation and practical application of this technology in its products and now the first presentations of Cinfa prescription medicines with NaviLens codes can be found in pharmacies. As the approval of the different regulatory phases is obtained, its application will be progressively extended to the rest of the company’s healthcare solutions, until reaching 1,500 presentations of its vademecum in Spain.
Over one million people with visual impairments, main recipients
In Spain, more than one million people have some visual impairment, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (“Survey on disability, personal autonomy and situations of dependence aimed at families”, 2020). Added to these are also people with visual difficulties for whom it may be difficult to read the small print on cartons or flyers.
By regulation, all medicines must display the name of the medicine in Braille on the packaging, but it is estimated that only one in ten people with visual impairment in Spain use it. The additional inclusion of the NaviLens code allows you to expand the important information of the medicine, such as the expiry date, the batch and the entire contents of the package leaflet. Furthermore, Cinfa will include this NaviLens code not only in its medicines, but in the rest of the healthcare products and healthcare solutions it makes available to patients.
How do NaviLens accessible QR codes (similar to traditional QR codes) work?
-They are designed with high technology and high contrast colors to make them easier to detect by visually impaired people.
-They can be detected from a wide range of angles and light conditions, allowing the mobile camera to scan them easily, even on the move, making them accessible even to blind people.
-These features eliminate the need to focus on the code specifically, simplifying its use and allowing access to the information it contains without precisely locating it on the case or leaflet.
Innovation becomes reality
For Javier Pita, CEO of NaviLens, «the evolution of technology allows us to bring forward solutions that represent very important improvements for people with disabilities, making products or services more accessible and allowing them greater autonomy. NaviLens technology has already contributed to making transport services in various cities, spaces in universities or consumer products more inclusive. “Now reaching an area as important for everyone as health is a great satisfaction for the entire NaviLens team.”
For his part, Luis Casado, president of the IDDEAS Foundation for Innovation and Social Inclusion, an entity that collaborated with Cinfa and NaviLens in the launch of this project, considers it “a great progress in patient safety and the right to health of people with low vision or no vision. We believe that our needs have been listened to and, furthermore, we have been taken into consideration in the different stages of the process in which people with visual impairments have been involved. This is the way to generate a more society inclusive and I trust that more and more sectors will opt for the implementation of this type of impactful solutions, which make the different areas of our daily lives accessible.
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