Introduction

Pharmaceutical leaders from AstraZeneca, Bayer, and Infosys Consulting have emphasized the critical importance of starting with patient needs rather than technology when developing digital health solutions. During a recent panel discussion, experts shared insights on how next-generation technologies can deliver meaningful patient outcomes when properly implemented with patient participation at the center.

Leveraging Data and AI for Enhanced Patient Outcomes

Sonny Shergill from AstraZeneca outlined three approaches to using technology for improving patient care. "It all starts with the data," he explained, describing AstraZeneca's internal machine learning platform called AZ Brain. "We've looked at very rich, broad data sets, examined care pathways, and zeroed in on where that care pathway is broken with precision."

The platform incorporates social determinants of health data to understand why care gaps exist, not just identify them. AstraZeneca has also invested in multimodal data integration, combining genomics, histology, and pathology information with clinical trial outcomes to identify biomarkers that predict treatment responses.

"Once you're in a care pathway and the decision's been made, we need to support patients," Shergill noted. He highlighted their MAP program, which builds networks of centers of excellence in various disease areas to share best practices. For respiratory patients on biologics, AstraZeneca provides digital and nurse support, which has shown "immediate benefits on adherence and persistence and patient outcomes."

Behavioral Science and Consumer Insights

David Champeaux from Infosys Consulting emphasized the convergence of consumer industry practices with healthcare. "In order to engage with patients in the context of their lives, you really need to understand people and access them in their daily lives," he said.

Champeaux identified three key lessons from consumer industries: achieving greater granularity of consumer insights, empathetically designing innovations into people's lives, and hyper-personalizing with AI and behavioral science.

He cited examples including Quantexa, a British unicorn that creates contextual decision intelligence by resolving identities across datasets, and MiiCare, which developed a voice-based conversational agent for older patients uncomfortable with digital apps. "They've designed a voice-based conversational agent very empathetically that they've co-created with a lady called Monica who was suffering from early-stage Alzheimer's disease," Champeaux explained. This approach has led to over 80% adoption rates and a 77% reduction in hospital admissions.

Co-Creation with Patients

Arianna Gregis from Bayer Italy shared the success story of TeraPiù, an app developed in Italy to improve medication adherence. " We have data from AIFA, the national authority responsible for the regulation of pharmaceutical products in Italy, saying that 50% of Italian patients struggle to adhere to the therapy
that they need to improve their health," she noted.

The app uses personalization and gamification to engage patients, with 90% of users reporting improved adherence. Gregis emphasized their agile approach: "We put it out in the market and see what people say... and then build on the input and make it better based on what people want."

She highlighted two critical factors in developing successful patient-centered technology:

"We spend maybe 60% of our time just to understand the problem, looking at the patient journey, the customer journey, and really understanding the pain points. With AI we can exponentially increase the personalization... Each of us can share their preferences and have a personalized journey according to their needs."

Measuring Success and Meaningful Outcomes

When discussing what constitutes meaningful patient outcomes, Shergill emphasized the importance of seeing through patients' eyes: "It's really standing in the shoes of the patient and thinking about what their outcomes are - the cancer patient who wants to see their children graduate, wants to hold a grandchild, or the patient with COPD who doesn't want to get an urgent admission into hospital again."

Champeaux added that participation is key: "The greatest goal if we want to achieve sustainability, sustained adherence and outcomes is to enable the patient and their informal carers to fully participate in their care. Too often they're seen as a passive recipient of their care."

All panellists agreed that measuring the success of technology interventions remains challenging but essential. Shergill noted, "When it comes to patient outcomes, it's a lot more difficult... I think we need to do a better job in being able to capture those in a smart way that's scrutinizable."

Building Ecosystems for Impact

The experts emphasized the importance of ecosystem-building rather than working in silos. "To be most successful in many of these areas, it's about building the right ecosystem. No one's going to do this alone," said Shergill.

Champeaux reinforced this:

"We have to stop looking at within our four walls. Whether it's a startup or a large global multinational, we really need to build bridges and nurture live ecosystems."

Five Key Takeaways:

1) Start with the patient, not the technology: "Don't start with the technology, start with the patient need and build back from there. Put the solution in the hands of the user and the business as an owner of that and then you'll see scale." - Sonny Shergill, AstraZeneca

2) Invest time in understanding the problem: "We spend maybe 60% of our time just to understand the problem, looking at the patient journey, the customer journey, and really understanding the pain points." - Arianna Gregis, Bayer

3) Leverage behavioral science for personalization: Combining AI with behavioral science creates more effective patient engagement tools, as demonstrated by the tripling of engagement in Singapore's health app using behavioral nudges.

4) Co-create with patients for better adoption: Bayer's TeraPiù app achieved 90% self-reported adherence improvement by involving patients in the development process and continuously iterating based on their feedback.

5) Build ecosystems beyond company walls: "No one's going to do this alone. And if you do, you'll typically not scale or you'll fail. Building the right ecosystem that includes the voice of patient is essential." - Sonny Shergill, AstraZeneca

The pharmaceutical industry continues to evolve in its approach to technology, with leaders increasingly recognizing that meaningful innovation must start with patient needs rather than technological capabilities. By incorporating behavioral science, building ecosystems, and truly engaging with patients as participants rather than recipients of care, companies are finding pathways to create solutions that deliver measurable impact on outcomes that matter to patients.

"That's one of my big missions in my team – that people are getting a flavor and a taste of all of the different components of this ecosystem between the data, the digital and the operations,"

she says. "The more we are thinking of that holistically across this whole area, the better off we're going to be anticipating and seeing around corners."

Key Takeaways

1) Start with the customer experience: "A big part of it is really starting with our customer as the first point. How do we think about that person's experience? The things that are making them frustrated or standing in their way."

2) Embrace difficult change management: "Standing true to the notion that ultimately, on the other side of those tough decisions, there's a better future for the organization and maybe even for those individuals who are impacted."

3) Adapt to the digital-native clinician: "Our clinicians are changing and that inherently means that the way we engage with those clinicians has to evolve with them."

4) Maximize each interaction: "The number of times we get in front of these clinicians nowadays is going to be a lot fewer per time period, so each one of those conversations needs to be that much better and that much more planned out."

5) Foster cross-functional thinking: "I want the entire team to be thinking about data, thinking about digital and thinking about operations, regardless of which place you are in your function."

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