Digital transformation in the healthcare industry is a positive and welcomed development as it creates opportunities for improved patient and customer experience, efficient operations management, lower costs, and better access to healthcare services.
Shashank Agarwal is an established analytics professional with years of experience in developing technology solutions that facilitate digital transformation within the pharmaceutical space. Talking about the need for digital transformation, Shashank said, “Patients have an aversion towards healthcare providers in America. This is caused not only by the high cost of healthcare services but also because of the approach of the caregivers. Little attention is given to patients as the time spent with each patient is very limited. Unfortunately, this triggers an aversion that begins to fester. Correcting this mindset and embracing digital tools to serve humanity should be at the front burner of every healthcare organization.”
In the pharmaceutical and healthcare space, the term digital transformation refers to the advantages that technology brings to both fields. Some examples of digital transformation include telehealth, AI-enabled medical solutions, virtual reality, connected care, self-monitoring, and big data analytics. These developments are fundamentally altering how patients communicate with healthcare professionals, how data is shared with various stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem, and how decisions are made regarding clinical trials, treatments, and health outcomes.
Shashank strongly advocates that pharmaceutical manufacturers make digital transformation a critical part of their strategic plan. He recommends that healthcare organizations invest in modern data architecture platforms that put the wide variety of electronic healthcare data generated to better use, adopt automated workflow software, train existing employees in the latest technologies such as AI and machine learning, etc.
According to him, organizations that fall short in adopting digital transformation as their culture would be at a severe competitive disadvantage in the next five years. Based on his extensive experience, there are three key benefits pharmaceutical and healthcare companies stand to gain if they digitize. They are individualized patient care, greater depth in interactions between doctors and patients, and the restructuring of business processes to enable real-time responsiveness.
In the course of working with several fortune 500 companies in the US, Shashank has implemented multiple analytics-based digital innovations. An example is the use of machine learning to build a technology platform that identifies patients who are most likely to discontinue their medication during therapy. In highlighting the value of the project, Shashank stated that “This innovation was of crucial importance to pharma companies and drug dispensing pharmacies as they use it to send digital and mail reminders to patients who have a tendency to default, thereby improving general medication adherence.“ Innovations like this have not only saved pharma companies millions of dollars but have also helped thousands of patients live better and healthier lives.
Even in its infancy, healthcare digitization is already having a significant impact on how doctors and patients manage their health and how pharmaceutical businesses operate. If pharma firms want to keep up with or surpass their competitors, they must be brave and adopt an act-now approach toward digital transformation.
