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Health Products Regulatory Authority - Website, Content Management System & Mobile Apps

Technologies: IIS, .NET, ASP.NET, SQL Server, Sitefinity CMS, Web Services, Android, iOS

Customer Profile

The Irish Medicines Board (IMB) changed its name to the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) on 1 July 2014. The HPRA’s role is to protect and enhance public and animal health by regulating medicines, medical devices and other health products.

The HPRA’s remit and regulatory functions include:

• Human medicines
• Veterinary medicines
• Clinical trials
• Medical devices
• Controlled drugs
• Blood and blood components
• Tissues and cells
• Cosmetic products
• The protection of animals used for scientific purposes
• Organs intended for transplantation

Business Situation

The requirement for redevelopment of their previous website came about due to a number of factors, primarily their widening remit where the addition of new functional areas required an online presence. Recent EU directives on drug safety and falsified medicines included legal obligations to provide information online.

The HPRA required an enterprise content management system that would allow them to manage and publish content across the organisation. The new website would also need to integrate with several internal HPRA systems to publish medicine information on the website and allow the public and healthcare professionals to report adverse incidents to the HPRA.

The HPRA underwent a change in brand identity in 2014. A new logo, associated corporate identity and a new website were required to support these changes.

Solution

Engine conducted design, information architecture and requirements workshops with key HPRA staff. The results of these meetings fed into our analysis work to produce a detailed specification of the new website. An extensive poll was also conducted to get feedback from a broad range of website users. New responsive website designs were produced so that the new website would function across all devices.

The Telerik Sitefinity product was configured and enhanced to deliver an enterprise content management system that delivered on the requirements of the HPRA. This allowed the HPRA to centralise the workflow of their content creation and create a multilingual website.

The new website was integrated with internal HPRA systems to publish all medicines and generics that are available in the Irish market as well as registries of all authorised manufacturers and wholesalers in Ireland. Registrations for internal systems are also processed through the website as well as adverse incident reports from the public and healthcare professionals.