To me, patient centricity is as fascinating a concept as it is contradictory. It is fascinating because it puts power into the hands of the patient. And it is contradictory because pharma does not like giving away power over its messages or processes. Pharma has traditionally never enjoyed interaction and has depended on ‘pushing’ messages across rather than having ‘conversations’. It probably also explains why we make do with medical reps who are not the sharpest knives in the drawer and scarcely invest in sharpening them.
The digital revolution is the fourth industrial revolution. It changes models, processes and whole public sectors. In many reports you will find that, in terms of digitalization, pharma is just next to the public sector, as least digitalized. Pharma just started late. There are many reasons for that – it is one of the most regulated industries with lots of sensitive data involved and many ethical aspects. But the slowed down digitalization has a lot to do with some subjective reasons. Adopting digital technologies requires changing existing models which requires a different mindset – and this is difficult to achieve. Nowadays, in the situation of a global pandemic, we see that digital communication is not only necessary to be successful but it is a must in order to adapt to the New Normality.