The term ‘digital’ in 2018 is a dangerous one. We all live in a complex mixed reality where the confines of digital and non-digital channels are blurred. The focus is rightly on integration with and augmentation of the human experience. That being said, when we look at health, people turn to digital channels first when seeking help and when looking for on going support, digital and especially mobile, are the future of interventional relationships between healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and patients. When designing patient support programmes with a digital element these are the 5 key foundations you need to bear in mind:

My vision of a digital health revolution is in four parts, those being:

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 19 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.

Improving people’s health and supporting improved clinical outcomes for patients is predominantly about behavioural change. Certainly digital health interventions are predicated on the idea that we can modify behaviour, whether this is adherence to medication or changes in lifestyle. Unfortunately this is not easy to achieve, human beings are complex and when it comes to health this complexity is magnified.

The term innovation belongs to that congregation of clichés that can be lazily used to evoke a sense of modernity and progression, often within industries or professions better known for conservatism and resistance to change.

In late December 1516, the English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist (and future catholic saint), Thomas More, published Utopia, a book about an ideal society on an imaginary island in an unknown place faraway across the seas. Even 500 years later it stirs debate as to whether this is some kind of comment or criticism of contemporary European society, blueprint for socialist philosophy, the first work of science fiction or more simply a clever farce. Or perhaps a combination, in some way, of all of these things.

Patient centricity is a central philosophy and strategy for virtually all of the top 40 global pharmaceutical companies. What this means and how to achieve it, however, varies considerably.

Digital health should not be inspired by technology but by great people like Wendy Mitchell. When listening to health tech or innovation presentations they often use quotes by the likes of Steve Jobs, Reed Hastings who started Netflix, Joe Gebbia & Brian Chesky who started Airbnb or some other disruptive technology entrepreneur. However, we must never forget to have great people like Wendy Mitchell as our driving force, understand their lives, their hopes and fears and their everyday problems. Unsurprisingly this goes well beyond taking their medicine.

The emphasis and importance placed on innovation in the pharmaceutical industry has risen dramatically over the last 5 years. Although successful in bringing innovative medicines to the market, it has been much harder to bring that innovation mind-set to other functions of the pharmaceutical industry in the way they communicate with customers, augment a medicines value proposition and utilise innovative technology to improve both clinical and patient outcomes. This however is changing fast.

Healthcare professionals, scientists and pharmaceutical companies’ understanding of the daily impact of disease and treatment on a person’s life are not always as good as they could be. Historically the focus has been on clinical outcomes, with an assumption that this naturally aligns with the outcomes from a patient’s perspective. Unfortunately, they are not always aligned at all.