EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Connected health has been the long-held panacea for reviving the healthcare sector, guiding it smoothly through a transition to the digital age. Pharmaceutical companies, healthcare practitioners, technology companies, government officials, academics, and other stakeholders had been keenly discussing the digital-health opportunity even before the unveiling of the Affordable Care Act in the US in 2010, which established outcomes as an important measure of care and reimbursement and incorporated digital technologies as a medium for offering the physically and socially constrained greater access to care. Given the legacy challenges the life sciences sector faces – from regulatory issues to sluggish innovation to drawn-out approval processes – transformation of healthcare has been slow to get off the ground. In contrast, the behaviors of consumers and patients have shifted dramatically over the past 18 months in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic: openness to the adoption and use of digital technologies in a healthcare setting has accelerated rapidly. Can biotechnology and pharmaceutical (biopharma) companies capitalize on this momentum to transform and scale their connected health portfolios? Are we finally approaching the tipping point at which connected health is sufficiently mature to drive lasting healthcare transformation? The results of our research reveal that most biopharma companies are still developing their connected health models, and that overall maturity of connected health portfolios remains low. Nevertheless, ambitions for connected health are lofty. Eighty-four percent of biopharma respondents in our survey said that the market opportunity for connected health exceeds that offered by their traditional drug businesses. Moreover, biopharma respondents anticipate connected health products will represent approximately 13% of their organizations’ total revenue in five years’ time. In terms of improvements in standards of care and patient outcomes, as well as revenue projections, many regard connected health as the most viable long-term model for the sector. To support this dynamic, we highlight six key actions biopharma companies can take to close their maturity gap and scale their connected health products and services effectively. Defining a connected health strategy aligned to established portfolio plans is critical for biopharma companies seeking internal buy-in and investment. Designing connected health products to drive measurable value and health outcomes will simultaneously demonstrate the clinical efficacy and commercial viability of connected health products to payors, promoting confidence and, by extension, reimbursement coverage. Centralizing the governance, operating model, and financial structures for connected health will increase autonomy of connected health teams, allowing them to work faster and in a more agile, collaborative manner, and also allow for more coordination in the regulatory approval process. On a wider scale, building a data ecosystem that promotes data sharing and interoperability within, and outside the organization, upskilling talent in data, behavioral science, and agile development, and building an ecosystem that provides guardrails while it embraces open innovation will allow biopharma companies to scale their products and services at speed in the new model, establishing connected health as the template for future healthcare.
top of page
Search
bottom of page
Comments