Michael Chekroun is the founder of Carenity, an online patient community that offers patients with chronic diseases and their caregivers a platform providing  three services: the first is a social network with discussion groups, the second is health information and news service, the third service is a space for surveys and studies where patients are invited to answer questionnaires online.Â
These studies are for the vast majority sponsored or commissioned by the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, Carenity has a community of 400,000 active members in 42 countries. In addition, the platform covers more than 920 chronic and rare diseases.
According to Mr. Chekroun, Carenity was born when he realized how important it was for patients to have access to other patients to share their experience and find quality information. What makes the platform unique is that it contributes to both patients and the life science ecosystem. Carenity offers its customers, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers of medical devices, biotech, and medtech, direct and rapid access to real -world data. This data is generated by carrying out studies via the platform. Carenity develops questionnaires and patients who are registered on the platform respond on a voluntary basis.
Since March 2020, Carenity has witnessed a rise in the number of new registrants on the platform as well as in the number of companies requesting for studies. With the pandemic and containment measures, patients with chronic illnesses face a risk of therapeutic disruption.
When asked about his vision on digital transformation and where he thinks the opportunities are in the health field, Chekroun believes there is still enormous room for improvement across the entire pharmaceutical industry value chain. Much faster responses are needed in emergency situations, but also for chronic patients and long-term treatments.
We need to completely rethink the methods and the way in which clinical studies are conducted and the way we do observational studies.
In Mr. Chekroun’s opinion, the future trends in health and pharma for the next few years will see a raise in awareness of the need for reactive and well-organized health systems. He also believes health will return to the center of economic and societal challenges. From a sector and industrial point of view, the big trend is going to be the explosion of analytics and access to real life data to inform and guide decisions in the pharmaceutical industry.
In the future, Carenity’s goals involve continuing international expansion and offering a service that is more useful and more comprehensive to the patients who join the communities. The platform also intends to reach one million users within two years and strengthen its leading position in the health analytics market.
For more information: www.carenity.com
