Medical affairs: judicious analysis essential amid large datasets
With the increased use of healthcare technologies, leading to record volumes of data, pharma need to be strategic in extracting insights to drive their marketing strategy.
By on Dec 19, 2023Actionable market affairs insights can increasingly be drawn through thoughtful data collection and analysis. Technological advancements through data centralization, artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time customer feedback optimize effective dataset use.
Actionable Insights:
- Large volumes of data need to be converted into insights to extract value: To efficiently convert raw data into information that can aid decision making, pharma companies should develop a strategy to plan and map data
- Manually extracting information from system databases is time consuming and resultant data tends to be siloed: To increase efficiency, pharma companies can use AI to generate insights, invest in technologies that can create patient-centric dashboards, and centralize insights to profile-map key opinion leaders (KOL)
- Employees need to be able to understand and interpret data for more efficient collaboration with all stakeholders: Pharma companies should look beyond KOLs to generate ideas on how to improve patient journeys
Analysis:
With pharma companies having access to an unprecedented volume of data, they need to employ strategies to collect targeted data for meaningful, actionable insights. Data planning and mapping can aid with grouping relevant information and creating an integrated network of insights from various sources.
Technology investments can optimize data collection and analysis by centralizing information onto one platform. Centralization prevents information from being siloed and provides a richer dataset. Moreover, data centralization allows medical science liaisons to conduct personalized weekly KOL profile-mapping with greater ease without the need for multiple data platforms. Technology advancements can also help create two different patient-centric platforms: one to identify different patient demographics and how they have changed, and another to collate insights, dashboards, and conduct sentiment analysis.
Technology can shorten the timelines from data collection to insight generation, which would be an upgrade from a typically manual process. While weekly insight generation might seem time-consuming, it allows up-to-date analysis compared to quarterly reviews. Technologies such as AI can filter through large volumes of data and can be incorporated into high-level insight management processes. AI integration supports documented, consistent, and more efficient insight generation procedures.
Another way to shrink insight generation timelines is by using natural language processing (NLP). NLP can break down large quantities of unstructured comments and texts from patients into meaningful segments in real time. Communications can be tracked, grouped, or flagged to provide timely insights for pharma companies.
With changes to the collation and interpretation of data through centralization and technology enhancements, employees need to be equipped to understand the process. To enable collaboration across the entire pharma company, each team needs to be trained on the changes. When people, processes and technology align, data can be more effectively used.
Feedback from patients and their caretakers is invaluable. Consequently, beyond KOLs, pharma companies should expand comment sources, such as general practitioners and internists. Companies should consider regulatory and legal restrictions on working directly with patients and HCPs. Once insights are generated, they should be communicated to patients clearly, taking into consideration patients’ health literacy levels.
Take a Deeper Dive. View the full panel discussion here.
Industry Experts Who Contributed:
All contributors are senior leaders within the pharmaceutical industry
- Kirk Shepard, SVP, CMO, and Head of Global Medical Affairs, Eisai Inc.
- Harmony Garges, SVP, CMO, and Head of Global Medical, ViiV Healthcare
- Dr Oscar Segurado, CMO, ASC Therapeutics
- Lance Hill, CEO, Within3
- Moderator: Matt Atkinson, Global Project Director, Pharma, Reuters Events