To address the growing gap between how healthcare professionals want to receive information and what can be provided, the world’s largest pharma companies have collaborated to simplify digital engagement. Jan van den Burg, vice president, commercial strategy, Europe, Veeva Systems tells us more…
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Today, there are greater expectations among healthcare professionals (HCPs) for digital engagement with life sciences companies. However, despite the rise of digital in life sciences, the ability for organisations to provide the right information to doctors quickly and effectively remains a challenge.
Part of issue lies in the complex and siloed processes for educating and informing doctors that exist between commercial and medical organisations. But the problem is compounded by the fact that each life sciences company provides digital information differently, across many portals and channels. For HCPs, this creates a significant burden as they simply do not have the time to wade through a sea of websites and portals to get critical product information. And it is this friction that consequently lowers HCP consumption of digital information from life sciences companies.
There is a growing gap between how HCPs wish to be served information and what the industry can currently provide. There is a higher expectation among HCPs for data to be at their fingertips. In fact, studies have shown that when doctors need information about a medication, they often go to Google, Wikipedia, or other second-hand sources before turning to the actual life sciences company responsible for creating the product. In fact, one study indicates that Wikipedia has become a top medical information site, with up to 50% of HCPs using it to educate themselves about medical conditions or treatments.1
To address this growing challenge, the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies have come together to form an industry-standards group called Align Biopharma. The goal of Align Biopharma is to make it faster and easier for HCPs to connect with life sciences companies with universal technology standards that will simplify access to information. Ultimately, the patient benefits.
“Our goal is to improve the overall customer experience for healthcare providers,” said Scott Cenci, vice president of global therapeutic operations IT at Biogen, one of Align Biopharma’s founding members. Other founding members include Allergan, AstraZeneca, Biogen, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer. “We are partnering with this group to architect industry standards, which will help us to achieve that vision,” added Cenci.Align Biopharma will define standards that are open and global to streamline digital interactions with HCPs. Initially, the group is focusing on two new standards to facilitate seamless digital engagement and simplify the HCP experience: identity management and consent and communication preferences.
Streamlining identity management
Jan van den Burg, vice president, commercial strategy, Europe, Veeva Systems
Jan van den Burg
Life sciences companies maintain rigorous registration processes for access to branded sites and portals. As such, a physician may need a dozen different registration identifiers (IDs) with a single company. As the number of sites, portals, webinars and other channels grows, so does the number of access points, making it acutely difficult for providers to quickly access what they need. Multiply this across all the various drug manufacturers with which an HCP engages, and the problem grows from a minor inconvenience to a significant burden.
“It’s difficult keeping track of all the username and password combinations required to access information from biopharma companies,” said Dr David S. Wernsing, FACS, bariatric surgeon at Penn Medicine. “Having a fast and convenient way to log into various digital sites and applications will dramatically simplify how I connect with the life sciences industry and deliver care to patients.”
A standardised process to deliver the right information to common customers will remove current roadblocks for HCPs. To start, Align Biopharma recently finalised and introduced an identification and authentication standard to enable single sign-on for HCPs to access online content through many different channels across companies. This new standard will improve how life sciences companies interact with their customers, and help to streamline HCP access to the drug and treatment information required to facilitate patient engagement.
The identification and authentication standard represents a major step forward for the life sciences industry, and a watershed moment for collaboration. It will allow biopharma and technology companies to align around a common way to provide HCPs with easy access to online content, and validate that the right licensed provider is getting what he or she needs quickly. Put simply, it will replace dozens of passwords with only one.
“The industry, working together, can harmonise digital engagement and information access and create a better experience for our shared customers,” explained Patrick Retif, vice president of IT, Global Commercial at Allergan.
Managing consent and communication preferences
Due to industry regulations, managing consent and preferences can be one of the most difficult aspects of digital communication with HCPs. The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into effect on 25 May, requiring all companies doing business in Europe to develop compliant models for data consent, collection, storage and processing. While the regulation will have a significant impact on organisations in all industry sectors, it will have unique compliance challenges for global life sciences organisation.
A forthcoming standard from Align Biopharma will create a common definition for consent and preference management, and help drive consistency in how HCPs specify communication preferences with each life sciences company. This will also provide clarity for HCPs to opt into or out of receiving information, so HCPs can get the information they need, how they want it. For example, one HCP may want to receive information via email from a life sciences company, but not a phone call. Align Biopharma will greatly simplify this.
Industry collaborations picking up steam
Collaboration in the life sciences industry is not new. TransCelerate Biopharma and the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) are examples of successful industry collaborations in clinical. Align Biopharma is the sign of a new, industry-wide priority to improve the HCP experience by tackling long-standing challenges in the commercialisation of drugs and treatments and also how HCPs engage with life sciences companies. Companies are coming together to solve these challenges because they recognise that the industry has a common goal to make things easier for their shared customers.
“Technology standards will solve a significant business problem across the industry by helping get information to stakeholders when and where they need it,” said Ed Kloskowski, VP, head of commercial IT at Shire. “At Shire, we are focused on meeting the needs of underserved patient communities. Joining forces in Align Biopharma to work together to harmonise digital engagement in a way that will ultimately help patients is one more path to serving our patient community.”
Initially formed with six founding companies, Align Biopharma membership currently stands at 23, including 14 leading biopharma companies, plus technology and service providers. Regardless whether a company is an Align Biopharma member, everyone will have access to standards published by the group.
“Align Biopharma represents the industry coming together to put the customer first and transform the HCP experience,” said Henry Levy, president of Align Biopharma. “With our first standard now available, our goal is to deepen collaboration to build technology solutions and encourage their broad adoption in life sciences so we can better connect companies and HCPs.”
As digital transformation charges forward in life sciences, common standards are key to removing some of the current roadblocks and paving the way for companies to leverage the potential of digital technologies to reach more HCPs.
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