95% are healthcare CEOs are exploring better ways of using and managing big data, according to a recent PwC survey. However, only 36% have made any headway in getting to grips with big data.

Pharma must understand both the prescribing habits of HCPs and the behaviours of patients to deliver products that meet the needs of both.

Linda Peitzman, Chief Medical Officer, Wolters Kluwer Health: “With the proliferation of information available, what's critical is ensuring that physicians have access to evidence-based information that not only delivers ...

The ubiquitous nature of the smartphone makes obvious the opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to develop both clinical interventions and support programs for smartphone devices. However, what if you were to learn that a device that has been available now since November 2010, and is synonymous with gaming, could actually lay claim to a greater impact on health than any other consumer electronic device?

The new Xbox One Kinect is a sophisticated piece of engineering with high-resolution digital camera and high fidelity microphones; the sensor can now even read your heartbeat.  However I feel it is the development of application software where some of the amazing possibilities could be uncovered for pharmaceutical companies. Here are five ways pharma could use the Kinect:

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Closed loop marketing addresses the sales and marketing issues in the Pharma industry. Find out how to get started.

Pharma companies need marketing strategies that will successfully engage the e-patient in order to continue branding and growing their products.

Health care professionals have more experience in selecting and processing digital information than the industry has experience in making it! Whereas information for healthcare professionals is basically about reliable and valid information, the format of it should be both appealing and interactively enough to gain and hold the interest of the professionals.

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Indeed: “Pharma companies are far from realizing their App market potential,” is the conclusion of research done. See here. Seven in ten doctors even have a self-tracking patient, says Manhattan reserach, quoted here. See some other statistics on tele- and mhealth here. Health care is moving towards integrated care in eHealth: 76% of Patients Would Choose Telehealth Over Human Contact with their care provider! (survey).

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There is a definite expectation among health care professionals about the impact of digital information to the quality of care. Beyond information on the drug itself, one is definitely in need of information about both background and consequences of using the drug in the perspective of practice of care: how would the drug facilitate the process of care, patients’ compliance, outcome of care and both patients’ and physicians’ satisfaction with their use.

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Based upon the survey results above, one would like to add the third dimension: development!
Development of dynamic edetails is more crucial than to produce a good looking app. Apps need to further interactivity and engagement. They must stimulate the journey of the professional through the information about the drug, leading to connectedness both for persons of reference and for further information. Indeed the very relationship with other (multichannel) sites and communications is relevant to the attractiveness to target professionals.

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But still another aspect is crucial to success in the long run: how does the organization respond to the challenges that edetailing poses to the firm’s current routines of promotion? Creating an app is one. But to handle it in promotion to doctors and other health professionals demands internal training and organization.

..It means that the design of the app and its use needs to follow the pace of individual learning and of internal change and development; a change that would also relate to development of internal culture of orientation: from an “inside-out product orientation”, to an “outside-in orientation on best practice of therapy”!