2020 has been a challenging year for all industries. For pharma and its HCP customers even more so. All eyes are on the companies developing vaccines and drugs for treatment of COVID-19, while doctors have closed their doors for pharma reps. Long established processes have been disrupted and complex market strategies have been rendered useless. Each pharma no matter big or small, innovative, or generic, had to improvise and come up with contingency plans to save the year. Some have been slower waiting for the old ways to come back, others have been more agile experimenting with digital and expanding boundaries, most are in the middle digitally curious but not risking too much.
A diverse, summer issue with articles on topics ranging from content marketing to the role of experience in a VUCA world. Also, the latest book for Medical Reps reviewed by Prof. Vivek Hattangadi
To be able to measure the RoI on digital in pharma, it is necessary to understand customers as individuals and create newer segmentation based on these needs and interests. This calls for the NextGen RCPA of data collection and personalized communications that engage customers, based on which pharma must create customer experiences that matter to them.
If your content does not scratch, where it itches the customers, digital or phygital, customers will not feel at home (comfortable, delighted, and wants more), which is what matters. Not a digital euphoria, which will soon die down as customers simply ignore it as they did when pharma launched a plethora of webinars.
In the lockdown, while I was on regular OPD and ICU rounds at a COVID hospital, I started noticing some mild symptoms of the Coronavirus infection. Being in the medical field and considering the severity of the pandemic situation then, I was very careful and cautious, and observed the symptoms closely. The symptoms persisted and I had to self-quarantine until the medical test reports came. It was important for me to isolate myself from the rest of the medical team and prevent the spread of the virus. Finally, the report came: I was COVID positive!
Stunned and slightly devastated; I broke the news to my family who could not believe it either. As a doctor, I could only treat, comfort and empathize with the COVID patients undergoing treatment; completely isolated from their loved ones. But now, I could actually feel the uncertainty of the situation. I was hospitalized and continued to experience body-ache during the admission. It was a stressful situation where I felt anxious and stressed about everything.
My CT scan reports showed mild lung infection on the day of admission but as the cytokines storm developed, my lungs were 76 % damaged in 3-5 days and I was short of breath and my oxygen level deteriorated to less than 80. I was shifted to an ICU with high-flow oxygen and was on a BiPap machine which I had purchased a few weeks ago for the hospital and never imagined that I would be using myself one day.
If a business fails, it was an idea that didn’t work. If treatment fails – it must be a botch up. A broken gadget may be beyond repair, but not a patient in a doctor’s hands. From such ungraded expectations stems the potential for things to take an ugly turn.
An unwanted profession dealing with an unwanted condition, namely Ill health:
If possible, we would wish away death and diseases, hospitals and doctors. A hospital is not a holiday resort, but it too costs money. And the scenario of an adverse outcome like death simply becomes unacceptable.
Lower prices, discounts, convenience of ordering and home delivery are some of the benefits for consumers with e-pharmacies. The anonymity of the internet encourages patients to seek information about medicines that they would otherwise avoid. Mental health is one area where the consumers wish to maintain confidentiality and opt for online consultation and medication.
How long before digital Unicorns like Ola, Swiggy, Pharmeasy, and many others realize the humongous opportunity of delivering health care at the doorstep?
Imagine an app like Ola, where instead of entering where you want to go, you enter the nature of your medical need/emergency and search and find a range of hospitals/doctors/paramedics who can act as the first responders and reach your home in an ambulance or a motorbike with an HCP as a pillion rider with all necessary equipment from the thermometer to defibrillator depending on the nature of the medical care needed and triage and route you/your loved ones to the nearest hospital with an indicative cost of treatment in partnership with health insurance companies?