JOIN USThe things of internet has changed into the internet of things. It ensures faster, more efficient and accurate outputs. It appears that all the problems of the current decade have one answer — Go digital.
Today, digital is one of the most used, most implied words of the solution-oriented populace, regardless of the sector. The newest and possibly the most life-altering member of this list is the pharmaceutical sector. With new solutions coming up in the market every day, as it is with everything that is new, there are doubts on how much impact they will have. Thus, it is required to understand the tangible as well as the intangible impact of the digital pharmaceutical sector.
With the doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:1,700 in India, it is extremely important to digitise the pharmaceutical sector to maintain the quality of service provided. It is leading to a paradigm shift in the relationship within the nexus of stakeholders, including doctors, pharma reps and patients.
It is even grabbing the attention of major technical companies such as Apple that released care kit app, IBM’s Watson health and QUALCOMM technologies, to name a few.
Digital fever has not even spared the health care professionals (HCPs), with over 64% of the doctors having smartphones and them spending more than eight hours a week over internet, accessing information about new medical approaches, providing their availability details, real-time updates with the patients about their appointments, patient history or face-to-face therapy sessions, among others.
At the back end, digital or virtual meetings have helped reduce the travel expenditure, increased workload during travel time and ease of access to the patient’s medical history. For patients, it provides ease of access to carry their health history in a digital format all the time, as well as finding HCPs in their proximity.
Around 70% of the people in the US have been using the web to find healthcare information, while 40% of these people had confirmed their diagnoses with the physician. These figures definitely reflect significant trust building in people over experts’ opinion obtained from the internet. HCPs are increasingly using digital channels such as video calls, emails, apps and SMS for interaction with both patients and medical representatives.
Analyses of investments in healthcare have shown a remarkable shift from electronics health record solution to developers of consumer-oriented applications, wearable health technology, and health data and analytics.
Technologies such as the Google glass that was initially designed for augmented reality are now used to facilitate and record surgery. These real-time surgery videos are now used to teach medical students, which eliminate the need of a cadaver or other medical equipment.
Various other companies are following these trends and moving towards developing their own line of sensor-based products.
Digi solutions touch $6.9 billion
With an estimated investment on digital solutions by global healthcare and pharma industry touching $6.9 billion in 2015, this space does look attractive and the rarest breed of companies that are able to work in the strategic digital and medical communication and research space have begun to offer a berth in this intellectually exciting space for others to follow.
As with every emerging industry, the digital wave has to face its own obstacles, first being the behavioural change that the patients and the HCPs have to go through to embrace this technology. Digital looks at changing the very thread of HCP patient engagement — being physically present.
As the bell curve suggests, the graph for early adopters of the technology is slowly reaching its saturation. Phase two of the digitisation has to quickly look into these specifications before the momentum dies out.
The second is the target audience. As new healthcare apps pertaining to specific functions are emerging every day, their impact on patients facing genuine health problem is not yet clear. It will still take time for the industry to reach its full potential, where it will change its nature from preventive to curative.
It is best summed up by the words of Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
So the road ahead? This is a question that every industry seems to be asking itself and trying its best to address it. New technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence are bridging the gap between the non-physical and physical with the vision of making the experience as real as possible for the patient.
(The author is CEO and Founder of MedTrix Healthcare)