The Two Important Ways Digital Health Is Impacting Pharma in 2015

There can be no better insight into Pharma's digital ambition than building a digital agency from scratch with pharmaceutical companies as the core client base. I have been working in pharma my whole career (now some 16 years) and feel very fortunate to have been around at a time of unprecedented change as technology has fundamentally impacted all aspects of the pharmaceutical business; from drug discovery and clinical trial development, through to the very nature of the product as health technology builds an evidence base and the focus moves from illness to wellness.

Having spent the last two years building The EarthWorks I have reflected on how great the impact of digital health has had on pharma companies. When I look at what The EarthWorks are asked to do the strategic direction becomes clear. Over 70% of our output is in health technology design and build. Principally this is focussed on clinically impactful support for patients, however there is also a significant proportion of this work focussed on supporting healthcare professionals - with the best work providing integration and a symmetry between the two. When I first became a marketing manager in a pharmaceutical company, the vast majority of the focus and budget was on marketing materials. This is still an important part of what pharma does but the investment and the excitement seems to have irrevocably shifted.

This got me thinking about how the digital health movement has impacted pharma. There are a great number of examples, including redefining real world data and challenging the nature of the communication between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals. However I think there are two principle pressures stemming from the rise of digital health that is impacting pharma in 2015:

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