Livi fights anti-vaxxers with digital patient messaging campaign

Digital health firm Livi is planning to step up its digital campaign to encourage people to get their COVID-19 vaccines in the UK, with messaging designed to provide accurate information to patients and counter social media messages from anti-vaxxer groups.

Through its MJog platform the digital doctor service Livi is supporting the vaccine roll-out by messaging patients who have become eligible to receive the vaccine as the health service gives jabs to vulnerable groups identified by government experts.

While the UK seemed slow to respond in the initial stages of the pandemic it is making progress at controlling the disease with a stringent national lockdown and mass vaccination campaign.

Getting COVID-19 vaccines to millions of people is a considerable logistical underaking but by acquiring the GP practice messaging service MJog in October last year, Livi is able to send out messages to around 45 million patients who are using its messaging service to encourage them to get the jab.

In 2020, GP practices used MJog to send over 200 million messages, up 140% since 2019, reaching an audience of over 32 million patients and demand for the service is expected to increase as the vaccine campaign continues.

In an interview with pharmaphorum, MJog’s CEO Kevin Nutt, said that the messages contain pre-prepared material giving them the facts about the vaccine.

Already approved by NHS experts, the material is a huge time-saver for GP practices that won’t have the resources to put this information together.

Nutt said: “We have worked with NHS at higher level to make it easier for them to educate patients about the risk of COVID and why they should have the vaccine.

“The materials we gathered together are trying to give patients confidence that the vaccine is the solution and their responsibility in helping the whole population to have it. It helps with the problem of the antivax movement that uses social media to communicate.”

As the pandemic recedes Livi, which is owned by the Swedish digital health firm Kry, hopes to continue playing a role connecting patients to GP services.

The number of appointments has increased overall because digital consultation services have increased efficiency said Livi’s UK managing director Juliet Bauer, who joined the firm in 2019 after a stint as the NHS’ chief digital officer.

Digital services are now incorporated into the NHS infrastructure and they are likely to stay in place in the long term, according to Bauer.

She told pharmaphorum: “As we hopefully emerge from the pandemic the key is integrated care systems how we seamlessly provide care to our patients.”