Pharmacists live in a world with constantly new and more advanced products, more types of medicine, and increased skill demands from up-to-date customers. The medicine producers have traditionally incurred huge costs to educate pharmacists and other pharmacy employees, so they will know and recognize all benefits and drawbacks attached to the different medicines and products.
Saves money
For the industry, there is an enormous cost saving potential in more efficient education of and communication with the pharmacies, and based on this fact, the pharmaceutical industry is one of the first to see the benefits of e-learning. The e-learning company Mohive has already entered into partnerships with Norwegian pharmacy chains. Now, international pharmaceutical giants show interest in the company’s software.
“Traditionally, pharmacy employees have spent their time off to update themselves on new products. There is limited time for this, and at the same time, pharmaceutical products are increasingly more advanced and detailed. E-learning gives us the opportunity to increase the knowledge of the employees so they can give their customers better guidance,” says Gry Gjelsvik from the pharmaceutical giant Actavis. The publicly traded American company has recently invested in
Mohive’s e-learning software, Mohive Toolbox, and will use Norway as a test market to evaluate it’s e-learning initiatives. The other Nordic offices are closely following the development, and are considering similar projects.
Increased knowledge
For the suppliers, it is important that the pharmacy employees know the benefits and limitations with the different products.
“For us, it is not positive if, for example, a cream to treat dry skin is sold to a person who doesn’t suffer from this condition. This will result in negative customer satisfaction, in addition to the potential damage to the customer. Increased use of e-learning increases the knowledge level of the pharmacy employees. We chose the same e-learning platform as the pharmacies to reduce the threshold of using the system,” says Gjelsvik.
International attention
Norwegian e-learning pioneer Mohive has received international attention because of its effective tool for knowledge sharing in businesses. Mohive Toolbox is sold to large corporations in Australia, the U.S. and England. Earlier this year, the company received financial backing from professional investors to enable the company to expand internationally.
“We see that Norway is a highly developed market, and the pharmaceutical industry is among the first to acknowledge the advantages of e-learning,” says founder and CEO Lars Unneberg of Mohive. Over the last year, the Norwegian pharmaceutical chains Alliance Apotek and Apotek1 have both started using Mohive Toolbox to further educate their employees.
Download the full Actavis case study