Due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Bauder Medical was unable to dedicate its full capacity to the organisation of professional gatherings, conferences, symposia and congresses in the field of medicine and pharmaceuticals, but this enabled the medscape.rs platform to come to expression fully.
We believe deeply and hope that this year we will again be among the best, and will justify the reputation that we’ve enjoyed in recent years, because we listen constantly to the market and the needs of clients and students – explains Bauder Farmaceutica Director Jelena Bauder, speaking for CorD.
During the previous year, the speed of transferring information was crucial to the preserving of people’s health and lives. Did that help us to grasp the importance of communication and modern technologies?
– It was difficult to find the positive side to this overall situation until recently, yet it has now emerged indisputably in the form of the scale and speed of joint initiatives created in response to the pandemic. New technologies today represent an ally in communication and business. However, worldwide, including in our country, there has been inconsistency in statements that has resulted in confusion and mistrust among the population.
Simply, I think that communication wasn’t coordinated at all levels. I certainly hope that we will draw a lesson from this whole situation about the right way to convey accurate information, as well as the importance of presenting a unified message to the public.
Medscape.rs is your online platform, in which you’ve invested a lot of teamwork, effort, dedication and time. Did it reach its full expression during the pandemic?
– The need for social distancing in the age of the coronavirus has resulted in major changes in our lives and an ever increasing shift to the online world. We reached a situation where we work from home instead of going to work, where our living room is also our office, while we work twice as much as when we went to work, but there’s no socialising among colleagues, no team spirit… The medscape.rs platform did come to its full expression in the age of the coronavirus, but even before that it was positioned highly among our business partners and participants.
The positive side of this entire situation is reflected in the scale and speed of the joint initiatives that emerged in response to the pandemic
MedScape represents a certified organisation of trust thanks to our successful operations. We’ve founded the MedScape Academy and an e-newspaper that will start operating soon.
How do we deal with misconceptions and conspiracy theories that seem to be stronger than ever? How did we reach a situation where we’re even disputing vaccines, as one of the greatest achievements of modern times?
– Immunisation saves millions of lives every year and that’s something we mustn’t forget. The psychophysical ramifications of a pandemic are almost inconceivable, both in scope and complexity. Everywhere around the world there will always be misconceptions and theories among a certain number of people, but there are certain channels of communication that help to spread them. Communication with the public should be based on appeals, alongside the adoption of appropriate strategies and reliance on a rational approach that implies adequate, truthful and timely information, as an aid in decision-making and the right to choose. Second, and no less important, is the emotional factor, which implies descriptive informing of what can be prevented by vaccination and showing empathy towards all age structures of the population, as well as positive encouragement in decision making.
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way of life around the world and raised questions of financing, the provision of services and management that should be answered by the heads of health systems in each country. In the end, it is important to recover to a level that is considered as the new normal, and I hope and believe that we will reach that level as soon as possible.