Patient Centricity, the most talked, least understood and poorly implemented strategy in our domain, if holistically approached and sincerely implemented, can truly transform and lead us towards a culture of ‘Healthcare is a Responsibility’. If every person in the life sciences organization at every level, is motivated, trained and equipped to understand, what is of value to the Patient and then strive towards co-creating, creating or contributing, we can travel a huge distance. Is this ‘Value’ paradigm implementable? Well, some are already doing it...
Pharma companies that used large field forces for multiple divisions, selling the same me-too products to create a resounding Share-of-the-Voice in the market are beginning to Stare-at-the-Diminishing-Returns for investments on traditional sales and marketing strategies, if they can be called strategies at all in the first place.
Most pharma companies and professionals like Black & Yellow cabs, continue to hope against hope, that somehow they will be able to continue to hold on to their businesses and jobs till their shares are sold and EMIs are paid. After that, who cares?
The answer to pharma and healthcare’s challenges will need a combination of profound domain knowledge and experience combined with digital skills to engage Rx customers meaningfully.
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?
With the Second Wave hitting India, customers (patients and physicians) will continue to socially distance themselves in the foreseeable future. Pharma must use the field force for reach and relationship and digital for frequency and personalised content for better customer experience.
The pandemic has made doctors adopt Telehealth in a substantial way to shore up their revenues and this will continue to be one of their channels to engage patients. Telehealth along with EMR/EHR, digital therapeutics and wearables is enabling doctors to better care for their patients. There are many ways in which pharma can support the digital evolution of doctors.