Welcome to a new edition of Spoonful of Technology, where we look at the latest examples of how pharma and its partners are working together to develop technology to solve key healthcare challenges
Words by Isabel O’Brien
Marketing
Challenge: Implementing generative AI solutions at scale.
When it comes to new innovations, the saying goes: start small and build up. But when the solution is as hot as generative AI (GenAI), it’s understandable that companies want to move faster. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, two-thirds of companies across six industries are increasing their investments after Q3 2024, but is pharma set up to scale GenAI effectively?
A collaboration that could help companies achieve this goal was announced on 11 July 2024. Indegene and Microsoft are joining forces to accelerate the adoption of purpose-built, enterprise-grade generative AI services within life sciences organisations. This includes capabilities across the modular and medical content value chain, from article tagging and personalisation, to relevant literature retrieval and key document generation, to clinical trial data management and analysis.
Tarun Mathur, CTO, Indegene, said in a statement that “GenAI represents a once-in-a-decade opportunity for life sciences companies to modernise business processes and reimagine the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations across the value chain”, illustrating the need for companies to take advantage of this opportunity with both hands.
Patients
Challenge: US patients struggling to access healthcare products and services.
In the US, the healthcare system can be a maze. In a Statista survey, while cost was cited as the number one problem by patients (54%), 27% said access to care or long waits for treatment was the next biggest challenge. Something as simple as getting a flu vaccine can be daunting, especially for vulnerable groups.
In response, Pfizer launched PfizerForAll this August, which is a user-friendly digital platform that has been designed to streamline access to their healthcare products. By bringing together key resources and services in a single destination, the company hopes the platform will help patients with actions such as getting care, filling prescriptions and finding potential savings on Pfizer medicines.
“People often experience information overload and encounter barriers when making decisions for themselves or their family in our complex and often overwhelming US healthcare system,” said Aamir Malik, Executive Vice President, Chief US Commercial Officer, Pfizer, highlighting the need for their new solution and indicating an opportunity for other companies to follow suit.
Medical affairs
Challenge: Declining engagement with traditional medical education.
Newsflash: the slide deck is dead. Healthcare professionals rightly expect more from medical education these days, but some companies are stuck in a static world. According to EPG Health, 45% of HCPs prefer interactive content, but only 34% of pharma companies have this in their educational toolkit.
This is a challenge also recently identified by Impetus Digital’s 2024 trends in medical education, which recommends ‘flipping the classroom’ to engage HCPs. Tools to help achieve this are beginning to emerge, with EMJ being one of the first open access medical journals to offer a full suite of options. The dynamic nature of 3D content, with clickable carousels, animated percentages and interactive quizzes, provides a more effective and immersive learning experience that is worth investing in.
As Professor Jonathan Sackier, Host, EMJ Podcast, points out: “These approaches bring data to life. As a clinician, my mind works in 3D and this interactive content resonates with the way I see the world.” Technology like this has the potential to take medical education up a notch.
