Who is responsible for healthcare? How Farmassist is changing the way we take care of our health.
By, José Segundo, third-generation pharmacist and co-founder of FarmAssist.
A legacy of care and closeness.
Since I was a child, I grew up surrounded by glass jars, handwritten recipes, and stories told at the counter. The pharmacy was more than just a place where medicines were sold—it was a meeting point between science, trust, and human care. My grandfather, then my mother and father, showed me that listening to a patient is just as important as knowing what medicine to give them.
They taught me that every person who walks into a pharmacy brings with them much more than just a prescription. They bring concerns, doubts, fears, stories, and often the hope of being understood. This sensitivity, this attentive gaze, this responsibility has been passed down from generation to generation. And that is what still drives me today, more than 20 years after I started my own journey as a pharmacist.
Over the years, I have realized that what people value most is not just the right medication, but feeling that there is someone on the other side who truly cares and whom they can trust. And that has always been the basis of my professional practice: first the person, then ... everything else.
The question that never left me.
Throughout my career, I have come to realize that care is difficult and fragile, and is not guaranteed by the socioeconomic status of the individual and their family, nor is the reverse true. It is a question I have always asked: who, after all, is responsible for care? The answer has never been simple, because care is not limited to the responsibility of a single person or professional. Is it the doctor who prescribes? The pharmacist who supplies the medication? The state? The family who cares from a distance? The doctor may prescribe, but it is the pharmacist who provides the most follow-up. The family (when there is one) provides support, but often from a distance. And the chronically ill patient does what they can to maintain their routine.
The truth is that care often gets lost amid busy schedules, overburdened healthcare systems, and increasingly fast-paced lives. And when care fails, it is not for lack of will. It is due to a lack of structure, support, and a solution that ties up all the loose ends.
It was through thousands of consultations, conversations, and life stories that I began to realize: the question of who is responsible for care may not require a single answer, but rather a new way of looking at the problem. A new path where care is shared, coordinated, and continuous.
A new response: Farmassist is born.
It was precisely this desire for change that gave rise to Farmassist. A service designed to solve what so many families experience every day: the difficulty of managing medication safely, simply, and with ongoing professional support. Farmassist organizes, prepares, and delivers medication in a personalized way—but it goes far beyond that.
Our mission is to ensure that every person, even those undergoing complex treatments, suffering from chronic illness, or with distant family members, can live with greater peace of mind and confidence. Farmassist is not just a home pharmacy service; it is a continuous therapeutic monitoring system, with a pharmacist available, therapy monitoring, and a team that cares.
It is the modern answer to an age-old problem. It brings the spirit of traditional pharmacy—that close, human, genuine care—into the present, but with the structure, technology, and reliability that today's world demands.
The daily challenge faced by so many families.
Every day, we see children calling their parents to make sure they have taken their medication. We see exhausted caregivers trying to do their best between work shifts and managing the household. We see patients taking their medication randomly, without fully understanding what it is for or when to take it. And we often see the anxiety of those who feel they are failing, even though they are trying to do everything right.
These challenges are not signs of disorganization or disinterest. They are consequences of a system that is not prepared to support continuity of care effectively. And while the system fails, real families live every day with doubts, fears, and difficult decisions.
The support for chronic patients must be more humane, more predictable, more present. Farmassist was created precisely to alleviate this burden. So that caregivers can have more peace of mind. So that patients can have more autonomy. And so that pharmacists can do what they do best: monitor, explain, and care.
What Farmassist does for you.
Farmassist organizes the month's medication in personalized rolls, identifying the day and time each dose should be taken. Each FarmaKit (box) is carefully prepared by pharmacists in pharmacies, and the service includes therapeutic follow-up, prescription renewal, and direct support for the user or caregiver. All of this is delivered conveniently, directly to your home.
More than convenience, what we offer is security. We know that adherence to treatment is one of the biggest challenges in healthcare in Portugal — and we also know that when there is support, proximity, and clarity, health improves and life becomes easier. Farmassist exists to ensure that no one gets lost in the middle of complex treatment.
This is our commitment: to care with simplicity, responsibility, and presence. Because for us caring is more than just medication, it is more than a service, it is a relationship!
Let's take care of it together.
We believe that care belongs to everyone, and it starts with a simple gesture of attention, a well-organized system, and an available professional. And I ask: How many families live with the anguish of not knowing if their father took the right medication? How many children call their mother every day, just to make sure she hasn't forgotten to take anything? How many patients live with the burden of poorly managed treatment—not because of a lack of will, but because of a lack of support?
If you feel that managing your medication, or that of a family member, is becoming a burden — you are not alone. Farmassist was created to change this. To give peace of mind to caregivers. To give autonomy to those being cared for.
Because no one should face illness alone.
And the truth is thathealthcare can be easier.Closer. More humane.
So I leave you with this question:
