MEDICAL DEVICE
What If Digital Could Drive Revenue? And overcome legal and regulatory issues? It can. By Chris Bergstrom, Associate Director, Digital Health, The Boston Consulting Group & Bradley Merrill Thompson, Member, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.
The whole healthcare industry is wrestling with how to handle the new world of digital capabilities. We know the benefits are there—we just don’t always know how to maximize them. What if digital could truly drive revenue? What if regulatory, in the digital era, did not seem like such a high hurdle? What if you could strategize the messaging precisely to each doctor? What if you could help them with psychographics, demographics, therapeutic best practices, and patient segment strategies? One HCP’s top patient issue about hypoglycemia might be diet, while another’s might be dosage. What if your sales reps’ calls were providing insight to their specific patient population? You can use digital to address all these concerns individually. And, from a marketing point of view, what if you could use digital to show enhanced product differentiation, especially with respect to specific patient popu31 | HS&M DECEMBER 2017/JANUARY 2018
lations? Even down to evidence of drug interactions and patient profiles? As a follow-on benefit, what if you could show payors value by demonstrating how medications are being used, and that they are paying only for drugs that are taken, minimizing fraud, waste and abuse? Finally, what if legal and regulatory were your advocates, rather than your stumbling blocks? Adverse events are a major concern, but these vary with regard to real world evidence vs. clinical trials. What if you could work with legal and regulatory to present this evidence in its best light? And have the muscle and firepower to ask questions that would leap the hurdles? Well…you can.
