There's an undeniable sense of optimism surrounding the field of medicine. Breakthroughs are happening at an unprecedented rate, with the potential to transform how we treat and prevent diseases. But as we welcome the dawn of an era the New York Times is calling “The golden age for medicine,” a crucial question lingers: How do we ensure that these innovations reach the patients who need them most?
The answer lies in creating a connected healthcare ecosystem in which a network of interconnected players work together to deliver seamless, equitable, patient-centered care.
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies have an important role to play in creating this healthcare system. But before these companies can successfully address healthcare’s thorniest issues—from access to equity—they need to harness the power of their data. By applying the right lens on patient health data, companies can pinpoint where care gaps exist. And with the right tools, they can see what’s causing the gaps so they can find effective ways to bridge healthcare experiences, support patients and providers, and begin building the connected healthcare system patients deserve.
Explore the heat map below to see high-value opportunity areas where your patient health data could tell you more and empower you to do more.
Toggle between real-world use cases to reveal where care gaps exist, uncover the drivers causing the gaps, and explore ways to bridge them and improve health outcomes.
Understanding how patient insights help pharma unearth hidden barriers
The path from groundbreaking discovery to widespread patient adoption is often fraught with unforeseen challenges. When we peel back the layers and get closer to the drivers of these challenges, we can broadly categorize them into four areas:
- Clinical characteristics: Certain patient conditions may make patients ineligible for specific treatments or surgeries.
- Education gaps with providers: A lack of awareness or understanding among HCPs can hinder patients’ adoption of new therapies.
- Social characteristics: Social drivers of health, such as income, education level and access to transportation, can significantly affect a patient's ability to receive care.
- Access and affordability: The cost of medications and the complexities of insurance coverage can prevent patients from getting the treatment they need.
By harnessing the power of real-world patient journey data, pharma companies can gain a deeper understanding of the specific barriers that keep patients from accessing their medications. But to get there, they need to connect, cleanse and analyze data from various sources, including clinical and electronic health records, digital health innovations, patient surveys, population and claims data.
Intelligent platforms that securely turn patient journey data into insights allow pharma companies to connect healthcare data at scale. These platforms help pinpoint opportunity areas where pharma companies have the power to bridge gaps, improve support and elevate healthcare outcomes.
Turning healthcare insights into real-world impact
Once patients’ barriers are identified, pharma companies can tailor their strategies to address the underlying issues driving them. Here are some potential approaches:
- Addressing clinical characteristic challenges: Pharma companies can invest in research to develop new formulations or treatment regimens that are suitable for a wider range of patients.
- Addressing social characteristic challenges: Pharma companies can partner with community organizations to address the social factors that affect patient health. This could involve providing transportation assistance, offering educational programs on disease management or advocating for policies that promote health equity.
- Bridging provider education gaps: Pharma companies can develop educational programs and resources to help HCPs stay up to date on the latest treatment options. A personalized, omnichannel approach that connects providers with opinion leaders, influencers and disease specialists based on their attitudes, behaviors and treatment preferences can heighten the impact of your educational efforts. This approach also helps you scale your efforts across a range of geographies, addressing patient hot spots and areas in which patient populations are dispersed.
- Bridging patient access and affordability gaps: Pharma companies can explore innovative pricing models, such as income-based pricing or patient assistance programs, to make their medications more affordable.
Unleashing the power of real-world data to connect our healthcare ecosystem
Pharma has an important role to play in co-creating the connected healthcare system of the future. By uncovering the hidden obstacles within patient journeys, pharma and biotech companies can ensure that their life-saving innovations reach the patients who stand to benefit from them the most. This not only translates to better patient outcomes—but it also fosters a more sustainable and socially responsible business and commercial model for the industry.
The golden age of medicine may prove to be a crucial era for pharma companies to break through the barriers keeping many of today’s breakthrough treatments, vaccines and discoveries from reaching the patients in need at the right moment. The companies that manage to meet patients’ needs and continue to innovate at scale will lead the industry toward its brightest horizon yet—and shape the future of healthcare for many years to come.
What to do next: Explore how AI-powered platforms turn data into insights and opportunities.
Why it matters: Secure, cloud-native platforms can connect healthcare data and turn it into insights you need to shape the future of healthcare.
