How can the Healthcare Industry Fully Benefit from IT Technologies in 2022?
Digital innovations are currently disrupting each major sector and the healthcare industry has been on the front line ever since the initial pandemic outbreak.
In 2022, we can observe the massive scale of digitalisation of healthcare. Today, medical companies risk staying behind if they don’t invest in new technologies that serve constantly rising market demands.
Luckily, at the beginning of this year, we can see that a leading economy such as the UK is already lifting most Covid restrictions, Denmark and Spain also follow the same example. Our hopes are that Omicron will put an end to the pandemic. Now, we should revise our lockdown lessons and build a more reliable future of digital health.
Like all businesses under the massive influence of Covid, pharmaceutical companies also faced operational challenges. Nevertheless, IT technologies assisted rapid vaccine development. All thanks to speedy peer review process and seamless clinical trials. While helping the world go back to normal, pharma companies also found operational gaps critical to everyday procedures.
Before digging deeper into how IT technologies can fully benefit the healthcare industry, we first need to discuss some challenges.
Main Challenges for the Pharmaceutical Industry
Communication Gap Between Pharma Representatives and Doctors/Institutions
The conventional communication channel between pharma companies and doctors, research institutes, and hospitals has been disrupted. Conferences, workshops, and seminars have been cancelled or have been translated into Zoom meetings. In the beginning, everyone was focused on proving that we can adapt to the new methods of communication and we can be effective in doing so but as time is passing by, people started to lose their engagement. According to Tech Republic, Zoom fatigue is real:
One-in-five professionals reported that “they are actively listening and providing live feedback.”
More than 50% of professionals were not engaged during such calls and weren’t focusing on the information being shared. Besides, people are getting tired of always being on calls, switching from one screen to another. Pharmaceutical companies are stuck in a place where they can’t actively promote new products or share new medical research. On the other side, doctors who are subscribing to new medications need guidance and data-driven information on how to prescribe a drug or how to dose it for specific patients. This causes declines in pharma sales and difficulties in covering new drug development costs.
Digitalisation of Internal Cross-Functional Operations
Pharmaceutical companies are among the largest corporations in the world and huge pillars of the healthcare industry. Working remotely has put forward the need for digitisation of internal processes and the time for making decisions, and delegating tasks. Take for example the drug discovery process which involves at least 4 different departments: research and development, clinical trials, marketing, legal and regulatory, sales.
It is quite a lengthy process with a lot of information being shared and the need for an integrated IT ecosystem, which enables data sharing, in real-time, is increasing. The other problem is that many of the systems which are used in big pharma companies are “legacy systems” which are, sometimes, using old technologies that impede innovations in healthcare and are not so easy to customise and reflect changes in procedures.
Creation and Support of Patient-Centric Digital Platforms
Stepping a bit outside the discussion about pharmaceutical companies, another big market gap and underutilised segment in the healthcare industry is the patient-centric communication channel. In case social distancing continues in 2022, patients need more tools to communicate with doctors, wellness, and fitness coaches.
Also, due to the increasing amount of wearables devices that gather personal data, people need to have a place where they can track their full personal health story and be able to share it securely with their healthcare providers. Such platforms do not only include the electronic medical record (EMR). They also offer a place where people can share and track their mental health, nutritional regimes and edit them. In order for such platforms to be successful, they need to prioritise the end-user’s needs and have the following important building blocks. These are: intuitive UX, scalable modular architecture, reliable data analytics, and direct communication channel.
Where Dreamix can Create Meaningful Impact:
Dreamix is an established technology partner to many pharmaceutical and digital health companies that establish cutting-edge innovations in healthcare. We specialise in leveraging advanced technology and business domain expertise to create scalable software solutions, specifically tailored to the needs of our clients. Our projects in the pharmaceutical/digital health industry follow disrupting healthcare trends such as:
AI-Driven Platform for Sales and Relationship Management
In 2020 we developed a sales and relationship management platform that uses advanced AI technology. The use case was to connect medical representatives together with health professionals and institutions. The platform is using natural language processing to communicate information about new drugs, dosing, and academic research. Addressing all types of questions by healthcare professionals is also a platform goal.
The AI-driven chatbot annotates automatically all the uploaded pharma content and shows only relevant information summarised in a visually appealing way. Together with the AI module, we built a customised data analytics module that tracks the engagement of users, analyses the questions. It also provides real-time market insights essential for marketing and sales campaigns.
Patient-Centric Digital Platforms
We have designed and implemented a modular and scalable web and mobile platform which aggregates and interprets personal medical data. Then, it transforms statistics into a personal, globally accessible, health story. Using the largest structured health and wellness image library in the US, the platform offers comprehensive information about medical conditions and proposes next steps for tracking.
The key element of the platform was to create a scalable architecture and infrastructure which enables compliant sharing and storing of data, according to all HIPPA and GDPR regulations. Future steps include video and chat tools implementations enabling real-time doctor consultation and wellness coaching sessions.
Medical Research Platforms
To facilitate the digitalisation of healthcare, together with one of our biggest European clients, we have created a medical research platform. It enables easier cross-institutional data sharing and medical research between internal departments. Besides, the platform allows pharma companies to plan and track the drug discovery lifecycle. Combining academic research and market data, they can adjust their marketing strategy and product launch milestones. The platform allows direct integrations with existing systems that supports data sharing.
Data Analytics Modules for Forecasting Sales and Customer Engagement
A special focus in all our platforms has been to enable data transparency and data sharing across different systems. Our data analytics platforms have analysed and visualised more than 4TB of sales and customer behaviour data.
The combination of data and analysis of external factors (such as seasonality, demand, force majeure events) has enabled us to provide accurate prediction. “What if” analysis improve cost planning and revenue streams, which are both key factors within the healthcare industry.
Communication Platform For Personal Health Data
Together with a Swiss partner, we have created a compliant, modular, and easily integratable communication chat. Using this platform doctors can create a more engaging relationship with their patients by setting up reminders, scheduling appointments or calls. The chat can be both a stand-alone communication platform or a plug-in that facilitates the doctor-patient communication. Plus, it allows appointment scheduling and sharing medical test information.
Research has shown that the more medical professionals invest in patient engagement, the better quality of care and disease management. On a larger scale, the advanced data analytics module enables doctors and users to track their activity, level of engagement, and historical information.
Enterprise Solutions for Digitalization of Pharma Trading Companies
Dreamix has also built a custom ordering platform for the largest pharmaceutical trading company in the Middle East. The product’s main purpose is to optimise the process and decrease the cost of ordering pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Тhe platform has a customer management section, where all the supplier contracts, pricing terms, and conditions are kept and updated.
As the second phase of this project, we will integrate the ordering platform to a custom build point of sale system. This is to ensure the coverage and automation of the full product retail cycle.
Clinical Trials Matching and Performance Tracking Digital Platform
Using advanced IT technologies such as secret computing, cryptography, and data analytics Dreamix has created a product that allows big pharma companies and CROs. Its goals are to improve the patient selection and engagement process, and provide advanced data analytics. All while preserving data privacy. The platform addresses several critical points which affect the success of any clinical trial: patient engagement and data sharing.
A special communication tool for doctors helps them receive data from their patients and set reminders. Also, doctors receive updated info on the objectives and progress of the clinical trial. With Pryv’s consent management backend, we store and segment all structured or unsrructured data. Using secret computing, pharma companies can perform advanced data analysis aggregated in different hospitals, locations, or countries. All these modules are in a scalable, modular, and easy to navigate platform available on the web and mobile.
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