Going “beyond the pill” using digital

For a while now, pharmaceutical and medical device companies have known that they need to do more than just sell drugs or therapies. This is called giving value "beyond the pill". They also need to provide customers–patients, care-givers, prescribers, medical professionals and regulators–with services, tools and solutions which support patient outcomes. In the digital world, this means apps, online patient support programs, social media forums and platforms to help optimize treatments.

Who, in a life sciences company, should be leading this? How? And what new skills do they need?

We conducted a survey of North American life sciences chief information officers (CIOs) and here's what they say works, what they're prioritizing, and why they discovered they need to change their whole way of working.

In the U.S., this has all been made more pressing by "Obamacare" – the Affordable Care Act (ACA) — which has increased the number of lower-income earners with medical insurance. Another factor is the rampant consumer adoption of mobile and digital technologies — which has led forward-thinkers to adopt innovative clinical, marketing and customer service initiatives.

The bad news is CIOs need to expand radically their current mindsets, work styles and skillsets to achieve this. First, we'll explore the new competencies they require. Then, we will examine what digital initiatives they say are having the greatest impact.

Let's look first at how they need to change. It's worth remembering here that CIOs are the IT managers of yore who may be used to a highly regulated - and even rigid - environment. They used to have a fairly tight remit of managing the IT and computer systems in an organization. Now they need to be strategists, "blue sky thinkers", innovators, motivators, inspirers and visionaries!

A key competency for CIOs is being a "transformational leader," according to 86 percent of respondents. This means identifying digital opportunities, articulating the vision for digital change and then motivating everyone to achieve it. These skills are probably unfamiliar - but achievable - for many life sciences CIOs.

They need to broaden their perspective on what digital is and see it as the bridge between IT and what their customers ultimately want. In other words, digital needs to be at the center of how CIOs deliver solutions, enabling the best experience for customers, patients and anyone else in the life sciences ecosystem.

In practical terms, we advise life sciences CIOs to focus on a handful of initiatives with the highest potential impact on the business. They then need to develop a story around what each of these three or four digital initiatives can accomplish, making them easily understandable, and specify the technology required. In this way, the CIO can influence and inspire change instead of just pushing technology solutions without people knowing what challenge is being addressed. Also: move quickly; if projects take 18 months to deliver, the entire landscape could shift in that timeframe.

Digital initiatives are present in all parts of any organization: Sales, Marketing, HR, Accounts, Production, Quality Control, Maintenance – the list goes on. Digital CIOs need to develop solid working relationships with people from all walks of life, which is a capability named by 90 percent of respondents. They need to listen to the challenges from various business functions, and communicate how digital can solve those issues in a meaningful way.

A critical relationship is with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) - because the digital adoption rate in life sciences is highest in the marketing function, according to our survey. But the CIO must also be close to the Chief Executive and to the Chief Financial Officer because the CFO is nearly as likely as the CEO to sponsor digital initiatives in life sciences organizations.

Relationship development is complicated by the fact that in traditional life sciences organizations, most CIOs don't report directly to the CEO; however, the majority of respondents (64 percent) feel they should. CIOs at smaller, emerging bio-techs may have an advantage here, because they often have a direct line to the CEO. Larger organizations should take note: these more- agile businesses could be a competitive force.

CIOs also need to develop relationships outside the organization, for example with cloud hosting providers to continuously communicate the needs of the business.

The ability to foster innovative ideas is a third top skill area, according to 88 percent of respondents. CIOs need to move beyond a mindset of "keeping the lights on" and begin actively noticing the changes in their industry and the world around them - particularly in what customers want/need, and how that might change over time. CIOs need to develop a sensitivity for human behavior and desires, and prepare technology that can respond.

Key to doing this is thinking beyond industry "givens," and exploring how other industries — such as retail, financial services and media/entertainment — approach digital opportunities and roadblocks. By meeting with professionals from other walks of life, and even bringing them into their inner circle, CIOs can develop a new way of thinking about delivering digital solutions within the constraints of a highly-regulated environment.

CIOs should also keep current with consumer use of technology so they can anticipate what the "ask" is behind a user request. For example, when asked for a new patient support portal, CIOs should immediately think along the lines of a MyFitnessPal-like interface (the nutrition and fitness app downloaded by over 75 million users worldwide) or some other relatable experience.

Remember too, the budget isn't unlimited. This forces CIOs to think differently about how they produce digital solutions, and to take a close look at what the business really needs to own in terms of the data center, software applications and the office itself. How could the organization work with smaller facilities and remote workers? CIOs need to understand Wi-Fi, remote security, routers, virtual conferencing and desktop sharing, as well as the tools and techniques for delivering virtual work cost-effectively.

Which tools, applications, platforms and pieces of the infra-structure can be moved to the cloud? As a heavily- regulated industry, life sciences has been slow to adopt cloud approaches; but top areas for the cloud include portals and platforms for digital asset management, clinical trial management, R&D collaboration, customer service and complaint management.

Life sciences CIOs need to become "chief talent officers," according to 84 percent of respondents, taking the initiative to fill skills gaps, rather than waiting for Human Resources to do it. New staff need competencies in design thinking (the iterative process by which designers imagine, observe, test and develop ideas), empathy and creativity, as well as knowledge of enterprise architecture, big data, Internet of Things and social, mobile, analytics and the cloud.

CIOs need to look outside the industry, and even outside the IT profession, to get fresh thinking and skills. It's the rare IT candidate who possesses both the right-brained (analytical) and left-brained (creative) thinking required for digital transformation. Rather than only pursuing these "unicorns," CIOs should concentrate on balancing their team with people who excel in either design thinking or technology architecture.

We've seen CIOs run hackathons to recruit entrepreneurial and creative thinkers. Done well, these events can even result in a working prototype the organization can fund or activate internally. CIOs should also prioritize attending conferences that focus on User Experience (UX) design, participate on blogs by thought leaders in this space, and so on. This is a great way to get feedback for new ideas and can also lead to finding new talent.

Whatever the industry, "being digital" goes beyond developing a few mobile apps, launching a web portal or moving a system/application to the cloud. It is both simpler - and more complex - than that: it requires making digital a core element of how the company operates and seamlessly blending physical and digital components to deliver new value to key stakeholders, whether they are patients, care providers, payers or pharmacies. In our study, top digital opportunities named by respondents had to do with connecting the business more closely with the value chain, as well as developing new sources of value, such as digital medicine and "value beyond the pill". We see the highest interest in the following categories:

• _{R&D collaboration: Nearly half of respondents named this as the top area for digital opportunity, with the aim of reducing the costs of clinical trial and treatment development, speeding time to market and making therapies more effective. For example, digital platforms can enable collaboration, centralized data access and standardized processes for clinical trial researchers, investigators, patients and sponsors. This streamlines the process and enables better, faster decision-making. Digital technologies can also ensure people in clinical trials take their medicine the way they're supposed to.}
• _{The patient experience: More than a third of respondents named digital medicine and "value beyond the pill" initiatives as a top digital opportunity, which ties in with the need for greater patient engagement. For example, one survey respondent developed a social media platform to enable patients to discuss and share medical concerns, as well as to recruit clinical trial candidates. Developing ways to educate patients and improve adherence to their treatment regimens creates better customer relationships and medical outcomes. Life sciences businesses are also looking to develop complementary digital tools and processes that give patients greater control over their treatment journey, such as researching therapies, getting questions answered, making appointments and ordering medicine. Another route is to develop highly personalized medical programs that track diseases digitally through smartphone apps and smart devices that stream data on health vitals such as cholesterol, glucose and blood pressure readings.}
• _{The commercial experience: Customer service was cited by a third of respondents as a top digital opportunity. As the ACA beds down, life sciences businesses see digital as essential to engaging with an extended list of new stake-holders, including pharmacy benefits managers (PBM), suppliers, care givers and specialists. Using a sales, service and complaint management platform, for example, life sciences organizations can streamline service requests, product complaints and other interactions/transactions. By better connecting sales reps, clinical specialists, service reps and customers, life sciences businesses can expand customer reach and improve customer satisfaction.}

So, in summary, while the task might seem daunting for many life sciences CIOs, the change will be worth it. For one respondent, digitization has enabled consistent messaging across channels, higher levels of customer loyalty and retention, increased cross-selling and conversions from inquiries to sales. "The money on the table is significant," he says. "Traditional life sciences companies must decide whether they will lead the charge by becoming a digital transformer, or let this shift of value happen around them, and accept being a digital follower."

Whether businesses choose to be leaders or followers, there is no time to "wait and see," because digital reinvention takes time. At the very least, CIOs need to begin now to assess what it means to be "be digital" vs. just "doing digital", and how they can steer their organization towards digital maturity. As one study respondent noted, "Our industry is changing track from volume to value. Digital business transformation is accelerating with rapid speed, and it requires us to move forward with a strategic and innovative approach to embrace change."

"Being digital" will require a strong push from the CIO; it won't happen on its own. At the same time, the dynamic between the CIO and CEO must change. The CIO needs to become a true digital champion and trusted advisor to the CEO. As the executive sponsor, the CEO needs to adopt the role of venture capitalist, reading the needs of the marketplace, securing funding for promising initiatives and working with the CIO on a collaborative roadmap for digital maturity. None of these changes will be easy. These shifts require CIOs to assert themselves proactively — perhaps something for which past experience and training hasn't prepared them.

But CIOs must perform a balancing act, helping to elevate the business while still managing IT efficiently and containing costs. By doing so, they can earn their seat at the table alongside their fellow digital leaders.

About the authors:

Bhaskar Sambasivan is Vice-President and Global Markets Leader in the life sciences business unit at Cognizant.

Will Reese is chief digital officer in Cognizant's life sciences business unit and President of Cadient, a Cognizant Company.

Bryan Hill is the architect of Cognizant's range of digital solutions and technology innovation for the life sciences business unit and is a founding member and chief technology officer for Cadient.