Yes, pharma is behind most other industries in terms of digital transformation, e.g. of customer engagement and solutions. As a permanent repetition of the evident, multiple studies (example), journal articles and blog posts are frequently reporting about pharma’s digital retardation. But that is not a fair comparison. Also being part of the truth, markets for treatments, medical devices and health services are actually no free markets similar to other industries. They are highly regulated. I am not complaining, there are good reasons for having limitations in place. It is just a general circumstance which needs to be considered with the challenge of leveraging pharma customer engagement in the digital space. But, despite a limiting environment … there are a things we in pharma actually can change … to facilitate digital transformation of our customer engagement. There are some self-made road-blockers, which can be addressed and changed. Willingness assumed. Customer-centricity … comes first. And should be self-understood … but actually is easier said and assumed than properly done. I am afraid to say that we at pharma sometimes have a fatal tendency falling in love with fascinating innovative technologies, intriguing eHealth solutions and exciting digital projects … without checking if factually a prioritized customer need is met … if any at all. Serious customer-centricity means that asking and listening comes first. What are the burning needs of physicians or patients? Which of them can be met with digital measures, which by other? Which communication channels does each single one of them prefer? Where are bottlenecks? How can we marry customer needs with our business levers? How can me measure success? … Getting the right message to the right customer at the right time and the right place via the right channel. It is not about what we would like to do or what we think our customers would need. It is about knowing real-world customer needs and preferences first. Culture “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, one of my personal favorite sayings, originating from Peter Drucker, legendary management consultant and thinker. And it is nowhere else more true than with digital transformation. Many people hear “digital” and think “technology”. No, that is exactly not what digital is about. At least not in the first instance. Certainly, technology is a key enabler. But it is not the solution. Especially with digital customer engagement, technology is nothing without a cultural change. Digital does not fail due to lack of technology; there is a vast and multifaceted market of digital technologies available, which simply need to be picked-up and applied. Digital does not fail due to a lack of ideas for exciting projects; the heads of pharma guys are full of them. Digital fails because we focus on innovative and exciting digital projects, and not on customer needs and preferences. Digital fails because it is ending up on top of the other stuff on people’s desks. Digital fails because people are concerned it might make their job redundant. Digital fails because it is seen isolated from other business activities. Digital fails, because the culture of the organization is no ‘fertile soil’, e.g. in terms of agility, collaboration and mindset. Digital transformation is not about technology. It is about changing the way we work, prioritize and communicate, actually an organizational cultural change. And this challenge needs to be tackled seriously. Digital upskilling A key enabler of the cultural change mentioned before, is a general and broad digital up-skilling of the organization. Digital is not a niche for nerds and digital passionates. Again, it is about changing the way we work and interact with our customers. So, everybody needs to be included … and to be trained in digital basics. Actually that is also what pharma associates themselves tell us again and again with every survey done. People want to do more digital, but don’t feel well equipped regarding the what and how-to, and broadly miss opportunities to develop. Willingness is not the issue, but enabling is a clearly identified bottleneck. Over-engineered compliance processes As mentioned before, we are working in a regulated environment. This is a given. But the responsibility for a pathological tendency to persistently over-achieve as well as for numerous over-engineered internal review & approval processes for digital tools and content, this responsibility is with pharma enterprises alone. Most of those processes are still developed and optimized for creating printed brochures or one time launches of (static) websites. They typically do not at all fit to the highly dynamic reality of digital content and tools updates. E.g. … There is no doubt that a the requirement for review & approval is vital. But digital business demands lean and agile processes for the same. And I dare to say, whoever is going to provide a smart solution for this general issue to the industry, is going to be a rich (wo)man. “Cobbler, stick to your trade” Honestly spoken, pharma should not try being the better digital tech provider. This simply is not our core competency, and all arrogant attempts being better than specialized companies have spectacularly failed. Always started with a lot of noise, but died silently after a couple of months if not years. Let’s focus on pharma’s core business and its challenges first, where there is still more than enough to do, but simply shop the digital tech parts from the true experts. So, let’s stop complaining about our industry being behind and authorities’ regulations repressing us. Let’s start doing our part, removing self-made road-blockers and creating frameworks for pharma digital transformation unifying agile innovation and the legitimate wish for patients’ safety and…

Limiting digital customer engagement in pharma to commercial and medical communication would be like asserting that the violins are the most important part of a symphony orchestra. If you ask a violinist, he certainly will confirm. But dare asking the trumpeter. Across any pharmaceutical organization there is typically a variety of digital ‘music’ played for physicians and patients … Obviously, different projects, initiatives, tools and solutions are touching similar customers if not the same, depending on the disease area. For example in rare disease, the likeliness to interact with exactly the same individuals in parallel (patients & physicians) is quite high. For that reason, a close and cross-divisional/-functional coordination and alignment of digital of activities and projects is key. Having separate activities in different corners of the company is not the issue … but it needs to be ensured that they are all ‘concerted’, that they all tell the same story and send consistent messages. It is like a symphony orchestra. It doesn’t really matter which instruments would be the most important with a particular piece of music. But it is absolutely vital that they all play together and listen to each other for ensuring harmony and an a pleasurable experience for the…

Earlier this year, I was visiting a presentation by the Basel business development agency on the challenges of Medical Device Regulations (MDR) for the providers of health apps. There had been around 30-40 IT guys locally supporting pharma with the development of health-related digital solutions, some from agencies, some freelancers. What they all had in common were shocked faces at the end of the presentation. I was not really surprised. During many years I have now been involved in the development and realization of various digital tools and solutions in pharma, I got used to digital agencies’ naivety if not reluctance to deal with regulatory requirements. Sometimes there was not even basic knowledge about MDR and CSV. Guys, you really should know what an audit trail is! I frequently met a thinking that this ‘annoying, boring and painful stuff’ should stay with the client who is obliged to all those pharma regulations, where digital is not. You thought wrong! Let me summarize some general developments I claim to watch … So, no let’s calculate 1+1+1+1 = … there is a huge market for digital solutions in pharma, but companies more and more take for granted that vendors meet their high level expectations regarding regulatory requirements. This is not going to happen in the future. This happens now, and has happened already. I dare to predict that in 5 years ahead … You want to do digital business with pharma in the future? Then stop being reluctant and learn to love MDR and…

I was leading a global biomarker+genetic testing program aiming to  identify hidden patients with Niemann-Pick type C, an ultra-rare and severe neuro-metabolic disease (prevalence 1:89’000, ~1’000 patients on treatment worldwide). The project included 44 countries, mostly in Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa. We used a highly specific and sensitive biomarker, Lyso-SM-509, provided by the Centogene AG lab, who was also performing the analyses. We were able to identify >200 additional patients, achieving surprisingly high hit rate of 5 in 100, corresponding to 4 patients per month on average. Investment per patient identified was in the range of 5.2% of yearly treatment costs. CLIENT:Actelion Specialty Care Global Business Unit(as an Actelion employee and member of)PROJECT TIME FRAME: January 2014 – August…

At least inside the pharma branch of industry I am working in, there clearly is a preference for iOS devices, iPhones and iPads. Everyone has at least one of those stylish tools in his pocket, if not in his or her hand most of the time. iOS devices are internal corporate if not even industry standard. Now, I am not going to start an ideological discussion today if this is good or bad, respectively which mobile platform would be the better one. In all pharma companies I was working with so far, iPhone is standard and many people really love it. They are used to it and enjoy it. Having an iPhone in your hands every day is absolutely normal and felt as a matter of course. And that is where the issue starts. Because iOS devices are used inside the company like a duck takes to water, they are often also unquestioned as the standard when it comes to developing innovative mobile apps for outside, e.g. for promotional use, for sharing information with target groups, or for communication with stakeholders and multipliers. Meaning, any mobile app for outside the company is inconsiderately expected to look and feel like an iOS app, to work and behave like an iOS app does, to be smoothly working inside an iOS environment, and to be developed by a digital agency selected for being strong with iOS apps, and and and … But actually, outside the pharma microenvironment, the use and usability of iOS devices is by far not given. In the “normal” world, there are dramatically more Android mobile devices in use. According to Gartner, in 2017 Android had a global market share of 86% compared to 14% for iOS. (other mobile platforms can factually be ignored) OK, you might say that your audience also has a high affinity for iOS. Yes, sure, might be. But even provided the ratio might be reverse, with more iOS devices owned than average, it will never be 100% and cannot just be taken as granted. In my case for example, one major audience for our promotional or medical apps are physicians. I dare to say that with physicians you will also find a much higher frequency of iPhones compared to the average population. But in all projects we were facing a considerable number of people which could not be reached by an iOS app. An with another pharma major target group, patients, there you anyhow have to consider the general Gartner figures. It is obvious that limiting your digital solution to iPhone/iPad … As a result people frequently realize quite late in their mobile app development, that yet an Android version is needed in addition. And this late change misses cost-reducing synergies you have when considering both versions early on. The solution is easy Don’t be prejudiced by blinkers, remove the iOS fences in your brain. And with mobile apps … consider versions for both key mobile platforms, iOS and Android, … as soon as possible in your project. Get rid of the limitation by being focused on a single mobile platform. And avoid the trap realizing later in your mobile app development, that yet another platform version is needed in addition. With this late change jeopardizing your project milestones as well as missing cost-reducing synergies you might have had when considering both versions early on. At least do an analysis of the mobile platforms used by your audience … to early identify the one used by 99% of them. Certainly provided that the target audience of your digital solution is such confined and has such a clear preference for a single platform. Alternatively consider handing out device+app … which we did in one of my projects targeting a very small group of users, “SAMS – saccade analysis made simple”, a training tool for medics and paramedics on recognizing oculomotor function deficits. This device+app package approach also has some challenges, but to be addresses separately. Not limiting yourself to any technology platform will be beneficial for your target group penetration … and your…

Why do agency representatives always show up in the same black or dark blue and ill-fitting suits?