Tag Archives: Actionable

Leveraging Data Science To Deliver Unique Patient-experience

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“Changes in consumer behavior, many of which were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, are fueling a redesign of the health ecosystem.” This finding was revealed by a recent study of the PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI). The research provided insights about how and why specific groups of consumers used health services during the pandemic – from mental health and telehealth to in-home care and other non-traditional care sites.

The study also captured ‘their willingness to use them again in the future,’ and suggested, those pharma companies that closely monitor these consumer signals and design, accordingly, will likely emerge as more customer centric, as the pandemic wanes.

From this perspective, effective application of data science for creating a unique patient experience by listening to patient voice, is now an imperative for pharma players. Which is why, this approach is nowa key business success ingredient in the changing paradigm. It helps offering a holistic disease treatment solution to patients searching for an effective and affordable disease treatment process.

This article will, therefore, focus on leveraging data science for strategic use of Real-World Evidence (RWE) based on Real World Data (RWD) – on how customer characteristics and behavior impact health outcomes. This initiative is fast becoming a key driver to excel in contemporary pharma business.

Strategic use of RWD/RWE increasing in pharma marketing plans:

RWE, as the name suggests, is the evidence derived from RWD. These are collected outside of clinical trials from various sources, such as, patients and HCP surveys on treatment outcomes, electronic health records wherever available, Wearable Health Devices (WHD), insurance claims, data from connected healthcare records, custom study and many others.

The McKinsey & Company article in this area, published on July 23, 2020, also indicated so. Although, some leading pharma companies have already been using RWE. However, recent progress in digital and advanced analytics allows it to be employed in new ways to deliver impact at scale, the article highlighted. When used by hands-on- professionals of repute in this area, RWE can help pharma marketers understand how patient characteristics and behaviors affect health outcomes.

The research paper on how Biopharmaceutical companies are embedding real-world data and evidence use across the enterprise, published in Deloitte Insights on September 21, 2022, presented an interesting contemporary example. It wrote: ‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, RWD/E played a key role in enabling Biopharma companies to innovate and bring novel vaccines and therapies against this highly contagious disease to market in record time.’id-19,

The approach gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic:

The above research study of Deloitte brought out this fact succinctly. It found; unprecedented challenge posed by COVID-19 pandemic prompted several drug companies to leverage RWD/E to innovate faster than ever before. More than half of the companies surveyed by Deloitte used RWD/E to understand the incidence and severity of COVID-19 and its variants for vaccine and drug development.’

The survey found: ‘Many vaccine developers, such as Johnson & Johnson analyzed RWD to predict COVID-19 hotspots across geographies to optimize site selection and collect data from diverse racial and ethnic groups.’ Besides, RWE also played a critical role for these companies in understanding vaccine effectiveness across demographics such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity and determining the need for boosters.

Improves patient experience for business excellence:

A systematic and ongoing tracking and analysis of well-identified RWD, by pharma marketing analytics professionals, can help in-depth understanding of changing pharma customer characteristics and behavior, more precisely. Such initiatives include patients, HCPs, hospitals and even the policy makers. Several drug majors have adopted this practice, immediately after absorbing the initial shock of unprecedented disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Similarly, RWD can help map the exact available space for demand where a brand is being used and potential competitive value-space for its further demand extension – based on real time customer behavior with changing characteristics. To shape customer journeys, such findings may immensely help while strategizing for more targeted content delivery, with sharper segmentation and brand positioning.

Therefore, finding such gaps in various areas of patients’ journey – in their search for an effective and affordable treatment, and appropriately filling these up with brand value delivery is critical. This will help improve patient experience manifold, accelerating business excellence, in tandem.

A recent paper titled, ‘Maximizing your role as a newly appointed real-world evidence leader,’ published by the ZS on March 23, 2022, made similar observations, as above. The study reiterated that patient-generated insights obtained through RWE, are uniquely capable of adding value at different stages of a pharma brand’s life cycle. Or, throughout a patient’s journey on the care pathway of the value delivery system. It concluded: “Carrying out a successful RWE study is a fine balancing act – but its inconveniences and risks are almost certain to be outweighed by the eventual benefits.”

Increasingly used to gain actionable insights to improve patient experience:

In the contemporary market dynamics – driven by changing customer characteristics and behavior, several pharma companies are now effectively combining and analyzing RWD to retrieve RWE. The objective is to gain actionable insights for effective customer engagement for better patient outcomes, to drive business growth. According to a recent podcast by PwC on using data to shape customer journey, the process includes the following:

  • Focusing on the value and outcomes of treatment protocols and less about specific products.
  • Gaining a better understanding of pharma customers and what drives their behavior.
  • Reaching beyond the barrier in driving differentiation amongst competitors.

Conclusion:   

The Forbes article on the Data Science trend in 2022, published on October 04, 2021, aptly epitomized its relevance in today’s business, including pharma industry. It articulated, data science encompasses the practical application of ideas generated by credible and meaningful data from various relevant sources, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence. Our ability to use such data to our advantage across wide areas in business, would help deliver increasingly worthwhile, valuable, and enjoyable patient experience. 

The article also underscored: ‘If data is the oil of the information age and Machine Learning (ML) is the engine, then data science is the digital domain’s equivalent of the laws of physics that cause combustion to occur and pistons to move.’

Thus, I reckon, both intrinsic and extrinsic brand value creation process, driven by its effectiveness, would increasingly call for Real World Evidence (RWE) based on top-quality Real-World Data (RWD). This is increasingly becoming so critical for success – spanning right across, from product development, launch planning with value propositions – to launch and beyond.

The core purpose of leveraging data science in pharma is, as I see it, is effective decision making throughout the brand life cycle, to deliver a unique patient experience in patients’ journey – with better treatment outcomes.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

Pharma Not To Let Go This Never Before Opportunity To Reposition Itself

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‘While the COVID-19 pandemic has placed unparalleled demands on modern healthcare systems, the industry’s response has vividly demonstrated its resilience and ability to bring innovations to market quickly.’ This appeared in the McKinsey & Company article – ‘Healthcare innovation: Building on the gains made through the crisis,’ published on November 12, 2020.

Just a couple of days before that, on November 09, 2020, an interesting article appeared in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the resilience of the pharma industry. It also discussed on how ‘an often-disparaged industry is finding a rare opportunity to promote its value,’ to turn around public perception of its image and reputation during the pandemic. The article elaborated this point by quoting: “It was a fight between pharma, tobacco companies and the government for who would be at the bottom in terms of reputation,” – now “Covid is giving them an opportunity to step out of that world and into the world of ‘we can help,’ and it’s giving pharma a comeback.”

As is known to many, pharma industry was long vilified for its many self-serving objectives. But the Coronavirus pandemic helped immensely to highlight its role in developing medications and vaccines to save the humanity. It happened never before – ever, with this intensity and scale. Thus, the shift is inspiring many pharma giants to reposition their marketing and communications, the WSJ report added. This article will deliberate on how pharma marketers can leverage this once in a lifetime opportunity, with actionable insights on Covid pandemic-induced – changing needs of healthcare customers.

Covid-19 to change the way companies do business - A recent survey:

In this McKinsey & Company survey, published on June 17, 2020, more than 200 organizations across industries had participated in this study. Notably, over 90 percent of the participating executives expect the fallout from COVID-19 to fundamentally change the way companies do business over the next five years, with a lasting impact on their customers’ needs. In the pharma industry too, these trends are clearly visible and undergoing a metamorphosis. I quote below a few important points from this study, as illustrations:

  • Nearly 73 percent respondents from the pharma and medical supplies industries agree that the changes brought about by Covid-19 will be a big opportunity for growth.
  • Only 21 percent of the same executives feel that they are prepared with resources, expertise and commitment to address the changes they see coming, for harvesting the new growth opportunities.
  • Curiously, only 25 percent of respondents reported that capturing new growth was a top priority today, compared to roughly 60 percent before the crisis hit.
  • Notably, across the industries only pharma and medical product industries have increased their focus on innovation during Covid crisis. Although, many are still playing safe, which may be a shortsighted decision, the research paper observed. 

Understand the shifts and the opportunities with actionable insights:

That the current Covid crisis has significantly exacerbated and accelerated many disruptive forces, is vindicated by another survey: ‘Global B2B decision-maker response to COVID-19 crisis.’ This was published by the McKinsey & Company on October 20, 2020. It also reiterated, ‘B2B decision-maker preferences and behaviors have shifted dramatically since the onset of COVID. The GTM revolution is here and B2B sales is forever changed.’ I shall quote two of these areas, as follows:

A. Changes to pharma sales models: Companies with significant field forces can no longer rely on in-person coverage to outcompete. This is because:

  • The tide has turned: digital self-service and remote rep interactions are likely to be the dominant elements of the B2B go-to-market model, going forward.
  • Don’t count on returning to a pre-COVID-19 level of in-person sales coverage, as only 20–30% of B2B buyers want to ever interact with reps in person even in their ideal/post-COVID-19 model.
  • Around 90% of B2B decision makers expect the remote and the digital model to stick around for the long run, and 3 in 4 believe the new model is as effective or more so than before COVID-19 (for both existing customers and prospects).
  • 97% of B2B buyers claim they will make a purchase in an end-to-end, digital self-serve model, with the vast majority very comfortable spending more online.
  • Video-conference connections are critical and are preferred over audio/phone by almost 4 out of 5 B2B buyers.

B. Influx of competitors from different industries: Medical-device firms historically had a narrow competitive set and were insulated by a complex and highly technical regulatory approval process. They are now facing competition from previously unexpected new entrants, including Wearable Health Devices (WHDs) makers, such as Google, Apple among several others. As I also wrote about a year ago, on December 02, 2020, this is mostly because, WHDs help improve disease outcomes, creating a unique disease treatment experience.

Which is why, in the new normal, creating a holistic and innovative ‘Customer Experience’ is as important and challenging as creating ‘Innovative Drugs’.

Reposition pharma to create a holistic ‘Customer Experience’ in the new normal:

At the very beginning of this year, on January 13, 2020, I asked: What Pays More: Creating Innovative ‘Customer Experience’ Or ‘Innovative Drugs’? Although both are crucial for pharma, in the current scenario, the former, I reckon, is no less important or less demanding than the latter for pharma marketers. The question, therefore, arises, what new insights it will entail to meet the unmet changing needs of healthcare customers? The answers may point towards several areas, which are worth pondering over.

Leaving this exhaustive search for pharma professionals to gain the necessary insights for action, let me give an example of only one such area to drive home the point. An interesting article deliberating this area was published by Reuters Events on November 17, 2020. Especially in the new normal, finding solutions to unmet customer needs would prompt harnessing the combined and synergistic power of medical and marketing skills, creating a culture to match, as the article highlighted.

Elaborating this need, the author stressed, the traditional model of medical and marketing functions working in silos is often a barrier to a holistic customer approach. This is because it stifles the opportunity for co-creation of well-synchronized solutions on a number of medico marketing issues during patients’ disease treatment journey mapping. These customer-centric medico-marketing issues, I reckon, are coming more often now with the increasing number of more informed patients, especially about their personal health care and treatment needs.

Traditionally, in the pharma industry ‘working in silo culture’ is quite prevalent – medical and marketing functions are no different. Encouragingly, during this pandemic, several companies have formed cross-functional teams of medical and marketing professionals. They also create brand plans, develop content and communication strategies in the new digital platforms, as preferred by the customers. Let me hasten to add, most companies, especially in India will need to catch up with this new way of working, creating a new culture, soon.

Two interesting examples of medico-marketing during Covid Crisis:

There will be several examples in this area. However, to illustrate the point of creating a holistic ‘Customer Experience’ in the new normal, let me cite two examples of medic-marketing in this area, during Covid crisis. Coincidentally, both the examples are from the global pharma major Pfizer – the Company (along with BioNTech) that offered the first Covid-19 vaccine to the western world for public use under ‘Emergency Approval’ by the British drug regulator.

The first example is a website for Pfizer prescription medicine assistance program – called Pfizer RX Pathways. It mentions at the very top, ‘Pfizer recognizes the public concern in relation to COVID-19, which continues to evolve. Click here to learn how we are responding.’ When clicked, it takes the viewers to another website, where Pfizer says, ‘we are committed to helping keep people safe and informed.’

The second one tackles the uncertainty and anxiety that many people feel during the Covid pandemic – reassuring the viewers that “science will win.”  It starts with: “At a time when things are uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is—science. Science can overcome diseases, create cures and yes, beat pandemics. It has before; it will again.”

There are many other examples, including a social media series on Covid-19 of the Company, which help enhancing holistic ‘customer experience’ in the contemporary situation, for which the concerned companies’ brands are also rewarded by the customers.

Conclusion:

As of December 13, 2020 morning, India recorded a staggering figure of 9,857,380 of new Coronavirus cases with 143,055 deaths. The threat of subsequent waves for further spread of Covid infection still looms large in many states. The good news is, at least, one Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be available in India within a month’s time. Meanwhile, as many people believe, when a company or an industry does most things right, as experienced by its customers, its reputation goes up, and vice versa. For example, the Gallup Poll, published around a year ago – on September 03, 2019 said: ‘The pharmaceutical industry is now the most poorly regarded industry in Americans’ eyes, ranking last on a list of 25 industries.’ Interestingly, similar Gallup Poll, published a year later – on September 08, 2020 noted, ‘the pharmaceutical industry’s image has improved modestly since last year, and it has yielded the “worst rated” distinction back to the federal government.’

So, something good must have happened during this one-year period, the most influential of which being Covid Pandemic. We have seen above, how some pharma players have repositioned themselves to provide a holistic ‘Customer Experience’, through innovative multichannel communication – being on the same page with customers. Medico-marketing approach played a stellar role in these efforts. As more healthcare customers get enlightened on their health and treatment needs by charting through the cyberspace, they are expected to lap-up such multichannel communication, alongside other equally cerebral pharma initiatives.

Undoubtedly, Covid pandemic is a triggering factor for this change, both among the healthcare customers and the pharma players. This trend is not going to disappear soon, as various top research studies have highlighted. Well-deserved pharma image and reputation boost has started gaining speed, following what some companies are demonstrating to customers during the Covid crisis. Pharma marketers, I believe, will not let go this never before opportunity to reposition their respective companies. It will help them achieve well-cherished brand excellence, supported by a robust Company image and reputation. As the good old saying has proved again to the pharma industry – even during the Covid pandemic, ‘as you sow, so shall you reap.’

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

Restart Pharma Demand Generation Activities With Actionable Insight

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As the ‘Lockdown. 04’ in India passes by, a time comes to press the restart button of all business activities in the country, in a calibrated manner, though, keeping in mind, the Covid-19 cases is yet to find its peak in the country. The process would naturally include all activities of the pharma industry. And more specifically, the prescription demand generation activity, where personal selling has remained pivotal in all these years.

But now, while living with the new Coronavirus, it would require greater cerebral interventions of astute pharma marketers. Creating an innovative pathway for recovery – driven by actionable insights, through an agile and digitally empowered workforce, would be the name of the game for success. In this article, I shall focus on this important area, as the industry moves on.

The bedrock of the new pathway:

The ‘restarting’ process of the prescription demand generation mechanism, I reckon, would no longer be the same ball game. It will now entail gaining cutting-edge actionable insights on the evolving dynamics of the changing business processes. It involves customers’ new preferences for consumption in the healthcare space and ascertaining the most effective demand generation processes or tools in the prevailing new normal.

Therefore, the bedrock of the new pathway, in my view, will necessarily need to be based on:

  • A huge pool of relevant, credible and preferably real-time ‘Data.’
  • ‘Information’ obtained by analyzing the ‘Data’ as desired.
  • ‘Actionable Insight’ gathered from the collected ‘information.’

The encouraging point is, several companies, even in India, have already started testing the water to chart the way forward.

Some fundamental changes in the path to recovery:

The McKinsey article of May 12, 2020 titled, ‘Pharma operations: The path to recovery and the next normal,’ also noted: ‘Given the shifts that have taken place seemingly overnight in response to the immediate crisis, companies are also turning their attention to recovery and the path to the next normal. It will likely bring about fundamental changes in pharma operations.’

Besides, the future of work will become more remote and distributed, and demand may shift to new capabilities and talent. Moreover, ‘the post-COVID-19 workforce and organization will also likely adopt new, more efficient ways of working.’ Thus, pharma organizations should consider adapting quickly in the path to the next normal, the article added.

The change and increasing relevance of ‘Data’, ‘Information’ and ‘Insight’: 

While discussing about ‘Data’, ‘Information’ and ‘Actionable Insight,’ let us first try to understand the differences between each of these three. Voccii, the US based market research firm, captured this difference eloquently, as follows:

  • Data: the raw and unprocessed facts, captured according to some agreed-upon standards. It could be a number, an image, an audio clip, a transcription, or similar.
  • Information: the data that has been processed, aggregated, and organized into a more human-friendly format. Data visualizations, reports and dashboards are common ways to present information.
  • Insight: gained by analyzing data and information to understand the context of a particular situation and draw conclusions. Those conclusions lead to actions that one can apply to business operations.

To facilitate the process of desired changes, translating research data into actionable insights will now be a crucial strategic input. In fact, these are essential while recomposing notes in pharma sales and marketing playbook, more than ever before. Notably, it has now been established in other industries that actionable insights facilitate prompt business process transformation, putting the organization ahead of competition for excellence.

What really are ‘actionable insights?’

Although, these two words are self-explanatory, it’s better to reiterate again – what ‘actionable insights’- based ventures are. It will help all to be on the same page while reading this piece. As I understand, ‘actionable insights’ mean gaining an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something or some situation based on relevant and credible data, that can help generate specific actions for a successful outcome.

However, what generally happens instead, and particularly in the Indian pharma industry, is usually very different. Quite often, many marketers get drowned in a large pool of available data and information, sans the cerebral skill of gaining actionable insights out of those – they start relying more on their ‘gut-feel’. As a result, ‘gut feel’ driven actions try to be in the driver’s seat, rather than data-based ‘actionable insights’ of high value.

Digital insights would be ‘The new currency of business’ in the new normal:

Today, it’s not quite uncommon to find pharma companies, especially in India, having loads of data and information. What they perhaps need to learn is, how to convert those inputs into actionable insights, the lack of which could make even the best of market research initiatives unproductive. That’s why, around the world, many believe that Digital Insights Are The New Currency Of Business. More so, in the new normal of living with Covid-19.

The article – ‘Actionable Insights: The Missing Link Between Data And Business Value,’ published in Forbes on April 26, 2016 also emphasized this point. It said. ‘With many companies struggling to make sense of their data and create value with their big data investments, the promise of actionable insights sounds wonderful. Forrester reports 74% of firms say they want to be “data-driven,” but only 29% are actually successful at connecting analytics to action. Actionable insights appear to be the missing link for companies that want to drive business outcomes from their data.’

Harvesting insights from data can fetch huge financial returns for the company. Which is why, sitting at the apex of the data pyramid, actionable insights help drive strategic action. It prompts rethink the status quo, pushing marketers to move into a new strategic direction. From this perspective, in the new normal of living with Coronavirus, actionable insight based unique brand strategy, content development and the process for reaching out to patients, doctors and other health care consumers, I consider, will decide the degree of business success.

Some focus areas for ‘actionable insights’ in the changing scenario:

Although, ‘actionable insights’ would help strategize a whole new chain of activities for increasing ‘prescription demand generation,’ some of these areas, for example, may include:

  • Capturing changes in patients’ behavior and preferences, specifically during the national ‘Lockdown’ period, besides, ‘compliance to social-distancing’ norms.
  • New ways of regrouping patient population, alongside, effective content creation and choosing right platforms for a sharper focus on them in the new situation. 
  • Doctors’ changing preferences for interacting with drug companies for the same reasons.
  • Making remote prescription demand generating actions highly productive, ensuring a cutting-edge over the competition.
  • Taking a quantum leap in improving the level of engagement for a greater share of mind with doctors, patients and other stakeholders, without bombarding them with ‘me-too’ emails, messages and calls. 

Conclusion:

As the ‘Lockdown. 04’ in India – the second most populous country of the world – ends, as on May 31, 2020 morning, the recorded Coronavirus cases in the country reached 182,490 with 5,186 deaths. Comparing the same with the most populous country of the world – China, where Covid-19 struck first ever – in December 2019, one finds it recording 83,001 cases with 4634 deaths, on the same day.

Be that as it may, after the national ‘Lockdown’ of about two and half months to save lives, it’s about time to restart initiatives for the livelihood of millions of Indians. Accordingly, pharma industry would also hit the restart button of its all business activities in the country – understandably, in a calibrated manner. The restart would include one of its most critical activities – generation of prescription demand, where personal selling has been pivotal in the years passed by. Several research studies have already highlighted a changing pattern in this area.

In the coming days of work while living with Covid-19, all would need to take measures to prevent the Coronavirus infection. Thus, strict compliance with the social distancing guidelines and other norms, as prescribed by the Government, will be ne necessary for all. This would also make the working life of pharma professionals, along with the practices of its stakeholders, significantly different from the traditional past.

From this perspective, while reaching for the restart button in the new normal, pharma sales and marketing leadership would need to create an innovative pathway to recovery. This would call for actionable insights about changes in the behavioral and preference pattern, especially of the healthcare consumers and providers. These will be absolutely critical for commercial success in the ‘new world,’ as it were – more than ever before.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.