Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, pharmaceutical companies face critical decisions about where to invest their digital health resources. Industry leaders emphasize that successful digital health strategies must prioritize patient needs over technological innovation for its own sake.

Building Trust in Digital Health Solutions

Trust remains the foundation for successful digital health adoption. Mitesh Daftardar, who leads the digital innovation hub at Merz Therapeutics, believes building trust with healthcare providers only gets companies "50% there at best," with patient trust being equally crucial.

"Building patient trust means designing solutions that will really impact good outcomes. It's on us to provide services to patients and build trust that a pharma company means the best for them," Daftardar explained.

For patients using treatments requiring self-injection, trust becomes particularly vital. Aurore Beaume from Aptar Digital Health described how her company addressed this challenge: "We've designed an experience with trainers—objects that look like auto-injectors without needles but reproduce every step of the journey—alongside digital content for training and reassurance."

This approach yielded measurable results, including a 38% improvement in time between prescription and first injection, 15% improvement in first refill rates, and 29% improvement in six-month adherence.

Transparency and Data Privacy

Megs Shah, founder and CEO of Parasol Cooperative, emphasized that transparency forms the bedrock of trust. "Trust starts from transparency. The more we can be transparent about the data we're collecting, why we're collecting it, when it's going to be removed, where it's going, who's looking at it, and how it's being used—the more we foster an environment of trust."

Shah challenged the audience to consider data minimization practices: "We don't need to collect all this information, so let's be mindful of how we do that. And secondly, social determinants of health are a huge factor for many patients."

Strategic Application of AI in Patient Support

The panel cautioned against implementing AI solutions without clear purpose. Daftardar noted, "Not everything has to be AI. Sometimes our patients just like human interaction—they just like to be called and checked in on to see how they're doing, especially older patient populations who don't have much support."

Beaume shared how her organization uses AI selectively for specific challenges, citing their work with Migraine Buddy, an application with 3.7 million global users. "We're applying AI to help users identify whether they're eligible for new treatments or clinical trials based on their specific data points compared to guidelines. This gives patients access to innovation while reducing burden on healthcare professionals by facilitating prior authorization."

Shah emphasized responsible AI development: "We actually built our solution with RAG (retrieval augmentation generation), which gives the information it needs to retrieve. The prompt itself needs to make sure it's getting the right protocols and limitations."

Cost-Effective Partnerships

Partnerships prove essential for developing cost-effective digital health solutions. Daftardar explained, "If we as a pharma company have to develop solutions in-house by ourselves, we will spend way more than if we partner with companies who already have built-out processes that we can repurpose."

Shah advocated for unconventional partnerships: "We really need to get to a better place working with non-profit organizations. Community-based organizations are already working directly with patients. We don't need to hire marketing firms to recruit patients—work with these nonprofits that are already low on funding."

Key Takeaways:

1) Patient-first approach: "Put yourself in their shoes. This isn't about what's in it for me as a pharma company, it's about what's in it for them as the person we're serving," said Shah.

2) Technology should address specific needs: "Not everything has to be AI. Sometimes a nurse check-in would really help, and maybe a chatbot can be a supportive element," explained Daftardar.

3) Trust comes from experience: "In the end, trust from users comes from the experience they're getting," noted Beaume, whose injection training solution improved adherence by 29%.

4) Transparency builds relationships: "The more open the dialogue we have with patients and HCPs, the more we foster an environment of trust," emphasized Shah.

5) Measure what matters: "If the challenge is adherence, we understand where those challenges are, what steps help achieve goals for the patient, and we test those," said Daftardar, highlighting the importance of iterative development.
 

"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 Terapeu 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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