In 1999, while the sweet sound of a dial-up modem accompanied our forays into the World Wide Web, Faruk Capan was taking a risk in Kansas City. It wouldn’t be his first, or his last.
Raised in Istanbul, Turkey, Faruk came to Missouri for graduate studies, and then took an internship at Marion Merrell Dow (now Sanofi). Here, he was able to combine his IT education with a new appreciation for its potential – specifically, its potential to help patients in desperate need of information and support. The launch of the digital age ushered in new ways for patients to connect with each other, and for pharmaceutical brands to reach patients.
Faruk built the first-ever online patient support portal, MSWatch. It gave patients with multiple sclerosis a place to connect, and to ask questions of healthcare professionals and the pharmaceutical brand. It was a major innovation – as well as a major challenge, as the team learned how to create and then manage an entirely new way of communicating with patients.
But that was just the beginning. Check out the complete profile of our tenacious leader from our friends at PharmaPhorum to learn what happened next, and where Intouch is headed in the future.