Cinfa Laboratories launched a pioneering project in the global pharmaceutical industry to integrate the NaviLens technology, which will increase its accessibility for people with visual impairments. More precisely, the company includes in all its packaging and in the instructions for medicines certain cspecific codes that, thanks to a free app and through the use of accessibility tools and the camera mobile, allow him to read and transfer your information by voicen basic, so that they are also accessible to blind or visually impaired people.
Thus, the name of the medicine or product, its presentation, its expiry date and its batch number are provided, in addition to the complete information contained in the leaflet, fundamental data so that all people, including those with disabilities visual, can correctly use your care in a comfortable and independent manner.
Thus, the corporate scientific director of Grupo Cinfa, Julio Maset, emphasizes: “When we discovered NaviLens technology, we made it clear that we wanted to implement it in all of our medicines and healthcare solutions. A project which, in line with our purpose, allows us to move forward to make health accessible to all. In this way we hope make room in the pharmaceutical sector so that more and more companies integrate these solutions and together we continue to work for 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 the first presentations of Cinfa prescription drugs with NaviLens Codes They can now be found in pharmacies. As approval of the different regulatory phases is obtained, its application will gradually be extended to the rest of the company’s health solutions, until reaching 1,500 presentations of its vademecum in Spain.
Main recipients
In Spain, more than a million people suffer from visual impairment, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (Survey on disability, personal autonomy and dependency situations among households, 2020). Added to this are also people with visual difficulties for whom it may be difficult to read the small print on boxes or leaflets.
By regulation, All medications must include the medication name in Braille on the package.but it is estimated that only one in ten people affected visual impairment in Spain uses it. The additional inclusion of the NaviLens code allows you to expand on important drug information, such as its expiration date, batch, and full package insert content. Additionally, Cinfa will include this NaviLens code not only in medicines, but in the rest of the health products and health solutions it makes available to patients.
NaviLens accessible QR codes They are similar to traditional QR codes, but are designed with high technology and high contrast colors to make them easier to detect for visually impaired people. Additionally, they can be detected under a wide range of angles and lighting conditions, allowing the mobile camera to easily scan them even in motion, making them accessible to blind people as well.
These features of NaviLens Accessible Codes eliminate the need to specifically target the code, simplifying its use and allowing access to the information it contains without having to precisely locate it on the housing or insert.
For Javier Pita, CEO of NaviLens, “the evolution of technology allows us to move forward with solutions that represent very important improvements for disabled peoplemaking products or services more accessible and allowing them greater autonomy. NaviLens technology has already helped make transportation services in various cities, university spaces or consumer products more inclusive. “To now also reach an area as important for everyone as health is a great satisfaction for the entire NaviLens team.”
For his part, Luis Casadopresident of the IDDEAS Foundation for Innovation and Social Inclusion, an entity that collaborated with Cinfa and NaviLens during the launch of this project, considers it “a great step forward for patient safety and the right to health of visually impaired or blind people. We feel that our needs have been heard and, moreover, taken into account in the different phases of the process in which people with visual impairments have been involved. This is the way to generate a more inclusive society and I have confidence that more and more sectors are committed to implementing this type of impactful solutions, which make the different areas of our daily life accessible,” he concludes.
