Industry Collaboration Streamlines Digital …...Industry collaboration streamlines digital...
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The life sciences industry’s commercial model has transformed significantly during the past decade; the growth of specialty drugs to treat complex diseases means that biopharmaceutical companies are delivering more information to healthcare professionals (HCPs) to prescribe drugs and treatments to patients 40 manufacturing chemist September 2017 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Industry collaboration streamlines digital engagement with healthcare Today, there are great expectations among HCPs for engagement with life sciences companies to be digital. For companies, there is significant potential to leverage digital technologies to reach more HCPs. Yet, despite the rise of digital technology in life sciences, the ability to provide the right information to doctors quickly and effectively remains a challenge. This is partly because of the complex and silo-based processes that exist within commercial and medical organisations to educate and inform doctors. In addition, each life sciences company provides digital information differently, using many portals and channels, which creates a significant burden for HCPs. Digital has also created higher expectations among HCPs for data to be at their fingertips. They simply do not have the time to wade through a sea of websites and portals to get critical product information. This friction consequently lowers providers’ digital consumption from life sciences companies. To address this growing challenge, the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have come The digital transformation will improve collaboration and innovation between companies and their engagement with healthcare professionals. However it is important to remember that face-to-face interaction is still important.
Transcript of Industry Collaboration Streamlines Digital …...Industry collaboration streamlines digital...
The life sciences industry’s commercial model has transformed significantlyduring the past decade; the growth of specialty drugs to treat complex diseasesmeans that biopharmaceutical companies are delivering more information tohealthcare professionals (HCPs) to prescribe drugs and treatments to patients
40 manufacturing chemist September 2017
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Industrycollaboration streamlines digital engagement with healthcare
Today, there are great expectations amongHCPs for engagement with life sciences companiesto be digital. For companies, there is significantpotential to leverage digital technologies to reachmore HCPs. Yet, despite the rise of digitaltechnology in life sciences, the ability to providethe right information to doctors quickly andeffectively remains a challenge. This is partlybecause of the complex and silo-based processesthat exist within commercial and medicalorganisations to educate and inform doctors. Inaddition, each life sciences company provides
digital information differently, using many portalsand channels, which creates a significant burdenfor HCPs.Digital has also created higher expectations
among HCPs for data to be at their fingertips.They simply do not have the time to wade througha sea of websites and portals to get critical productinformation. This friction consequently lowersproviders’ digital consumption from life sciences companies.To address this growing challenge, the world’s
largest pharmaceutical companies have come
The digital transformation willimprove collaboration andinnovation between companiesand their engagement withhealthcare professionals.However it is important toremember that face-to-faceinteraction is still important.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
together to form an industry standards group calledAlign Biopharma. The goal of Align Biopharma isto make it faster and easier for HCPs to connectwith life sciences companies with universaltechnology standards that will simplify access toinformation. Ultimately, the patient benefits. “Our goal is to improve the overall customer
experience for healthcare providers,” said ScottCenci, Vice President of Global TherapeuticOperations IT at Biogen, one of Align Biopharma’sfounding members. Other founding membersinclude Allergan, AstraZeneca, Biogen,GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Pfizer. “We arepartnering with this group to architect industrystandards, which will help us to achieve thatvision,” added Cenci.Align Biopharma will define standards that are
open and global to streamline digital interactionswith HCPs. Initially, the group will focus on twonew standards to facilitate seamless digitalengagement and simplify the HCP experience:identity management, as well as consent andcommunication preferences.
Streamlining identity management As it is a highly regulated industry, most lifesciences companies maintain rigorous registrationprocesses for access to their branded sites andportals. As such, a physician may need a dozendifferent registration identifiers (IDs) for a singlecompany. As the number of sites, portals, webinarsand other channels grows, so does the number ofaccess points, making it acutely difficult forproviders to quickly access what they need.Multiply this across all the various drugmanufacturers with which an HCP engages, andthe problem grows from a minor inconvenience toa significant burden.This complexity often causes HCPs to use
spreadsheets to track user IDs and passwords, oravoid these sites altogether and turn to othersources. In fact, one study indicates that Wikipediahas become a top medical information site, with upto 50% of HCPs using it to educate themselvesabout medical conditions or treatments.1
A standardised process to deliver the rightinformation to life sciences companies’ commoncustomers will remove current roadblocks forHCPs. To start, Align Biopharma recentlyfinalised and introduced an identification andauthentication standard to enable single sign-onfor HCPs to access online content through manydifferent channels across companies. Thisstandard will allow biopharma and technologycompanies to align around a common way toprovide HCPs with easy access and validate thatthe right licensed provider is getting what he orshe needs quickly. It will replace dozens ofpasswords with only one.“The industry, working together, can harmonise
digital engagement and information access andcreate a better experience for our sharedcustomers,” explained Patrick Retif, VicePresident of IT, Global Commercial at Allergan.
Managing consent and communicationpreferences
Owing to industry regulations, managing consentand preferences can be one of the most difficultaspects of digital communication with HCPs. TheEuropean General Data Protection Directive(GDPR) is scheduled to apply in 2018, requiringlife sciences companies to develop models for HCPconsent and preference management. Violations ofthe GDPR can be costly, reaching as high as 4% of revenue. A forthcoming standard from Align Biopharma
will create a common definition for consent andpreference management, and help to driveconsistency regarding how HCPs specifycommunication preferences with each life sciencescompany. This will also provide clarity concerningwhat it means for HCPs to opt into or out ofreceiving information, so HCPs can get the druginformation they need, how they want it. Forexample, one HCP may want to receiveinformation via email from a life sciencescompany, but not a phone call. Align Biopharmawill greatly simplify this.
Industry collaborations picking up speedCollaboration in the life sciences industry is notnew. TransCelerate Biopharma and the ClinicalData Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)are examples of successful industry collaborationsin the clinical trial space. By contrast, Align Biopharma is tackling
longstanding challenges in the commercialisationof drugs and treatments, and how HCPs engagewith life sciences companies. And companies arecoming together to solve these challenges becausethey recognise that the industry has a common goalto make things easier for their shared customers. As digital transformation charges forward in life
sciences, companies will find new and innovativeways to continue to collaborate and improveengagement with HCPs. Face-to-face interactionwill remain important, but the transition to digitalis happening fast — and common standards willbe key to enabling a transformation for all lifesciences companies.
REFERENCE1. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/doctors-1-source-for-healthcare-information-wikipedia/284206/.
About AlignBiopharmaAlign Biopharma(AlignBiopharma.org) isan industry standardsgroup made up ofleading pharmaceuticalcompanies and VeevaSystems Inc. that isdedicated to making itfaster and easier forhealthcare professionalsto connect with the lifesciences industry
FOR MOREINFORMATIONJan van den BurgVice President, CommercialStrategy, EuropeVeeva Systemswww.veeva.com
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About the author
Jan van den Burg is Vice President of Commercial Strategy at Veeva Systems, wherehe is shaping advances in cloud-based software to enable modern multichannelcommunications between life sciences companies and healthcare providers acrossthe European market. He has more than 20 years of experience in the software andservices industry, mostly dedicated to pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining Veeva, Jan led the life sciences sales and marketing group in IBMGlobal Business Services, engaging at strategic level with top 20 pharmaceuticalcompanies about customer relationship management, closed-loop marketing,multichannel and digital marketing, and digital asset management. Previously, Janset up and ran the European business for Proscape Technologies — the leader at thetime in closed-loop marketing — successfully developing the market frominception, establishing the concept, and leading the early implementations. ContactJan at [email protected].
