The digital revolution has arrived. New technology and advanced analytics are transforming how the pharmaceutical industry works, competes and engages with customers. How then can you get ahead of the curve?
Health system efficiencies
As new and increasingly innovative medicines provide more opportunities for treatment options in previously unmet areas of need, patient access can often be slowed down by local care pathways or services that are either not currently set up to deliver the treatment or do not even exist. Even in established pathways, fragmentation, bottlenecks and pressure points put substantial strain on the system.
As an industry we allocate significant resources to process mapping patient pathways. What we need to do is get past the process mapping quickly and develop a real understanding of where the inefficiencies and pressure points are in the pathway that are preventing patient access to treatment. These pressure points, if not remedied are far-reaching and can adversely affect patient outcomes, patient experience and health system spend. So if you want to create change, this is what you need to focus on. Digital technology gets you to this conversation, fast.
Speed to improvement
Historically service improvement and pathway redesign discussions involving industry and customers have been facilitated through complex models and simulations which require lengthy discussions. Conversations often result in highlighting pressure points (ie an overwhelming set of problems) in the pathway without reaching a solution. The call to action is often squeezed into the last five minutes of the call, or worse, scheduled in for the next meeting, which for many payer customers could be several months away. The result? Unintentional inertia from both parties.
Digital technology allows the care pathway and pressure points to be communicated in minutes, and with significantly more impact, leaving the remainder of the customer meeting available to work through the call to action and the change implementation plan.
Streaming big data
Digital technology enables this immediate impact by streaming multiple data sets via the cloud directly to an iPad so the data tells a story in a useable interface, across the pathway. Streaming the data directly to the pressure points allows for incisive decisions to be made, based on evidence, and robust actions can then be agreed. The explosion of big data sources and analytics required to underpin the case for change are outmanoeuvring Excel by sheer volume and functionality. We can now use data in ways we never imagined, instantly and at the touch of a button.
Optimising outcomes
Powerful shifts can be made across healthcare economies by using digital technology in this way. Your customers are already tuned in to the potential this has to speed up pathway development and service improvement.
Accession is currently working with the NHS in the UK to prevent the devastating impact of stroke caused by atrial fibrillation (AF) through the use of digital technology. AF strokes are likely to be the most serious strokes, cause long-term harm and result in premature death in patients who are not effectively anticoagulated. There are almost 42,000 GPs working in England; this hints at the vast behavioural and system change required to implement NICE guidance and shows why, five years on from the publication of the first direct oral anticoagulant technology appraisal, we are not yet there.
The digital solution Accession has created reaches parts of the healthcare system that haven’t responded. This innovative app attempts to drive broadscale behavioural change across the primary care workforce, to implement NICE. By using our app, the vision is for every GP and commissioner in England to have at their fingertips an understanding of the patient and system impact of not effectively anticoagulating. By overlaying the clinical and cost-effectiveness of treatments across the pathway and utilising big data to identify areas of risk and opportunity, healthcare professionals and commissioners can see in a matter of minutes key improvements they need to make to their local pathways, right down to individual GP practice level. Furthermore inbuilt analytics will allow us to easily measure and evidence the behavioural shift.
The unique speed and clarity of message that can now be achieved with digital technology is bringing a new era of customer interaction and engagement. By motivating whole system behavioural change in this way, the value of innovative treatments can be instantly recognised. With the power of digital technology, the potential to improve patient outcomes is profound. This is just the beginning, and the possibilities are endless.
Lindsey Rosen is co-founder of Accession www.accessionhealth.com
