At a time when a large portion of healthcare practitioner interactions have switched to digital, it’s clear that life science companies need to transform their approach to be much more collaborative in the way they work with healthcare professionals.
A new survey from Reuters Events in collaboration with Microsoft and Exeevo, Medical-commercial collaborating to win in the digital era, offers an inside look at the trends and challenges with which life science professionals have to contend, and how they are responding.
The survey of more than 1,000 senior professionals included pharma (46%) biotech (12%), medtech/device (4%) and consumer health companies (2%).
The report explores new strategies and tactics for how these companies are working with healthcare providers and adapting themselves to improve the patient experience in healthcare. Although the life sciences industry is making rapid progress and investing in areas spanning digital capabilities and medical education, the sector is also reexamining strategies in key areas such as content, launches and field engagement strategy.
There’s a complex terrain of compliance rules that vary based on geography despite the borderless lands of digital. There are also myriad challenges within organizations, particularly managing territoriality, which can stymie efforts tocooperate, especially where internal objectives are not aligned.
The race to adapt to a digital world is not a straightforward one. A significant minority of respondents said they do not have faith in their ability to deliver an excellent customer experience with digital. Almost one third are not confident about or don’t know if they are delivering excellent customer experiences. Only 17% are very confident in this regard.
Companies clearly see the need to transform the customer experience (their second most pressing strategic priority) and 39% cite more collaboration as the most important means of achieving this.
“This is not just a physical MSL doing digital,” said Alex Bedenkov, AstraZeneca VP Medical, International, according to the report. “It is using AI, analytics and chatbots to supply and provide HCPs with additional instruments and tools to ensure the best possible patient outcomes.”
Medical Affairs will also need to devote more time and attention to social media in general, according to Luca Dezzani, Vice President, U.S. Medical Affairs, Eisai U.S.
“Most Q&As are happening on Twitter. If you’re not doing social listening you’re losing fresh insights into things like disease states. Instagram is also growing,” Dezzani noted. “With social media we do more than listening. We also do medical education, like CME on Twitter, and the number and metrics we see are mind-blowing if we compare that to traditional symposia where you may only have 100 or 200 people. Now with Twitter we see thousands of physicians. It is convenient and quick.”
To learn more about the report, Medical-commercial collaborating to win in the digital era, click here.
Photo: Getty Images
