Year in Review 2014: Digital
As mHealth begins to dominate the healthcare landscape, content becomes the key driver of interaction, and the industry must evolve quickly if it wants to stay relevant. Pharma must understand the customer mindset. Here are the top insights and tips we covered for you in 2014.
1. It's credible content that engages HCPs
Nick de Cent sits down with Simon Fry, Digital Product Development Director at Springer Healthcare Ltd., to discuss ways to engage healthcare professionals. Fry gives three tips for pharma companies seeking to use content: 1) Use source-relevant, credible content that is going to engage the audience; 2) Procure content and re-use it in a way that’s compliant with the content owners’ terms of use; 3). Put the content in context for the sales force, so that reps can have meaningful discussions with physicians that involve more than just handing over a promotional message.
Nick de Cent explores how digital is reshaping pharma sales organizations. Today’s commercial landscape is all about engagement across the customer spectrum and creating genuine value, as opposed to simply supplying a product. Accordingly, pharma strategists recognize that the old-school approach of pushing information at stakeholders is no longer effective; the days of giant sales organizations slugging it out to achieve revenue, reach, and frequency seem positively prehistoric.
3. Leveraging the mHealth opportunity
Deirdre Coleman talks to Michael Weinberger Senior Director, Innovation & Enterprise Solutions at Johnson & Johnson about mHealth as an indispensible part of the healthcare landscape and the need to provide utility to the end-user. According to Weinberger, for the pharmaceutical industry to deliver enhanced value to payers, patients, and HCPs, they need to understand the consumer mindset. “Our customers reach a quick appreciation as to whether an app is a thinly veiled ‘digital trinket’ or whether it genuinely provides utility in terms of enhanced convenience, experience, and outcomes,” he says.
4. Is it time for the conference to go virtual?
Nick de Cent catches up with Len Starnes, digital healthcare consultant, who argues that the traditional medical society conference format is no longer fit for purpose. It’s not only expensive for pharma companies to participate, but regulation is increasingly restricting what companies are able to do at events. “If you think about it, medical society conferences haven’t changed much for a long time. A hundred years ago, medical society conferences were staged in more or less the same way as they are staged today,” Starnes says, and proposes solutions that will turn your conference virtual.
5. Pharma execs gear up for the digital revolution
Digitization has become a credible “transformational strategy” rather than just a “nice marketing gimmick” in the eyes of pharma executives, reports Nick de Cent. 2014 saw a “new dynamic” with digitization more of an organizational priority compared to the year before. “Digital Health will transform the business model of the pharmaceutical industry. Although many companies have not yet formulated a concise digital health strategy, industry executives expect that by 2020, digital health will enable pharmaceutical companies to activate new business segments as well as to significantly improve their competitive advantage,” proclaim industry analysts from Arthur D. Little interviewed in the article.
6. Change your digital strategy towards customer needs
Thomas Disley interviews Julie O’Donnell, Senior Manager, Global Head of Digital Interaction Management, and Tim White, Senior Director, Head of Global Customer Interaction Management, both at Lundbeck, about the company’s change in mindset that allowed it to leverage a digital approach. “The biggest differentiator between Lundbeck and other companies has been the move away from a platform approach. Our ambition has become to deliver the right information, at the right time, and on their [customers’] terms,” O’Donnell declared.
7. Don't leave love to luck: Designing to influence with health apps
Don’t Leave Love to Luck is a health app designed by Bayer Healthcare, which became the number one healthcare app in Turkey with more than 35,000 downloads in three months and a 5/5 rating. Its purpose is to increase birth control and menstrual cycle awareness among men in a discreet and socially acceptable manner. Deirdre Coleman explores what mobile health apps need to be to effectively drive behavioral change.
8. mHealth to transform healthcare: Can pharma compete?
Robert Imonikhe speaks to David Doherty, co-founder of 3G Doctor, a service providing documented mobile video consultations with registered doctors. Doherty believes that for further mHealth adoption to take place, pharma needs to pursue radical change focused on aligning incentives with outcomes and handing over more control to empowered patients. “In the last couple of years, pharma have realized that this is their future business model,” Doherty stated. Pharma are certainly aware, but can they compete in that space with technology leaders?
9. Smart inhaler initiative takes off
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects 65 million people worldwide, and is currently responsible for 5% of deaths globally. COPD is on track to be the third leading cause of death by 2030, and urgently requires intervention. Boehringer Ingelheim joined forces with Propeller Health to digitize medicine delivery. The combination of smart inhaler fitted with sensors, mobile apps and a care team dashboard for tracking medication use, delivers better quality of life to individuals affected by COPD.