Innovation is a broad and often nebulous term. For anyone to work in more innovative ways, it is important to have a clear and consistent definition that makes sense to the business and the people in the context in which they operate.
At Commercial Eyes, we define innovation from internal and external perspectives:
- From an external perspective, innovation is the ability to conceive, develop, deliver, and scale new products, services, processes, and business models for our clients1.
- From an internal perspective, innovation covers approaches that focus on the resources, ideologies, processes, and people within our company2.
A large part of our work involves leveraging local and global trends to delivering insights and strategies for our clients. This enables us to think and act more innovatively with our clients. Overwhelmingly, we see that technology & data is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare. This includes new innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and wearable devices.
There will be an explosion in the volume of data generated by healthcare organisations and individuals, which will likely be driven by two key factors:
- Increasing cognitive capabilities enabling more natural and intuitive interactions between humans and machines i.e., language processing systems to convert patient interaction into coded medical records.
- Increasing utilisation of remote monitoring and wearables by consumers and health organisations.
This is not limited to digital health. We can expect to see digital transformation touching every aspect of the healthcare ecosystem in the coming years, from patient experiences to clinical and operational systems, to the skills and culture of healthcare workers.
Globally, the following healthcare trends are witnessed across healthcare, pharmaceuticals and MedTech and will continue to impact the Australian ecosystem:
- Artificial Intelligence in healthcare, include drug discovery, analysis of medical imagery and detecting and treating neurological disorders.
- Remote healthcare, including telemedicine, remote surgery, and the virtual hospital ward.
- Retail healthcare, which will become more prominent as global economic conditions lead to squeezed budgets at traditional frontline primary care facilities.
- Digital healthcare/therapeutics, the sophistication of wearable medical devices, capable of medical scans, smart textiles, and smart gloves.
- Personalised healthcare, which includes the concept of precision medicine, where drugs and other treatments are specifically tailored to a group of patients.
- Curative therapies, such as cell and gene therapies are changing the way we deal with chronic diseases or difficult-to-treat conditions by eliminating the need for long-term treatments.
- Real-world data and real-world evidence (RWE) are transforming innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. RWE includes patient health status, treatment data, and health reports collected routinely. The pharmaceutical industry must make sure that the data they use is reliable and of real value.
The impact of these trends is already being felt across multiple healthcare systems showing the need for clearer patient journeys, increased engagement between pharma and HCPs and better patient access3.
There is a growing gap between the demands of innovation and healthcare system capacity and the average volume of interactive engagements for innovative launches is far below pre-pandemic levels. This highlights the need for better patient experience and context mapping.
Stricter payer management challenges pharma’s margins and shifts evidence thresholds and requirements. This highlights the need for better data management and commercialisation.
Likewise, recommendations for future Launch Excellence reflect these trends as well as showing the need for better partnerships, service design and delivery model innovation4.
There is a need to develop a deep understanding of local health systems, care pathways and priorities, facilitate care pathways, end-to-end, pre-launch to prevent bottlenecks, weaknesses, and gaps in the system.This highlights the need for better service design and delivery model innovation.
Successful launches require the development of partnerships with health systems at a national and local level and to develop a multi-stakeholder integrated evidence strategy to provide continuous and highly relevant evidence. This highlights the need for better strategic partnerships across the health care system.
It is also important to rebuild HCP interactive engagements and make every interaction count and deploy medical resources early.
To help our clients navigate these trends and turn them into better patient outcomes and commercial success, we expect an increase in need for the following services in our Access, Research, and Intelligence team:
- Patient Experience and Context Mapping: Our service employs advanced research and co-design to document crucial details that uncover opportunities for heightened patient engagement, leading to improved health outcomes and commercial success. This unlocks in-depth insights into what patients really experience, strategically enhances satisfaction for lasting impact, improves accessibility, and cultivates a patient-centric environment that translates into favourable commercial outcomes.
- Service design / model innovation (“Service Blueprinting”): Our Service Blueprinting is a structured process meticulously outlining the people, process, and technology to support patient and/or customer interactions. Seamlessly following patient experience and context mapping, this process identifies when and how to measure the most important interactions to better improve outcomes. This approach transforms healthcare interactions by strategically blueprinting service models, ensuring optimal patient and/or customer interactions, and fostering data utilisation for informed decision-making.
- Wearable device data mapping and commercialisation: Our service enables businesses and healthcare entities to derive actionable insights from wearable device data, fostering informed decision-making, personalised healthcare interventions, and innovation in health-related strategies. This allows organisations to leverage wearable data for strategic insights, product enhancement, and market growth.
- Retainer offering for ASX-Listed Biotech & MedTech Innovators: In the challenging landscape of small and micro-cap ASX-listed BioTech and MedTech companies, compliance with multiple laws poses a considerable challenge. Our specialised retainer service provides not just advisory support but actively steps in to support critical roles and proactively navigating the regulatory landscape.
- Finally, we recognise our role as an important contributor and facilitator within the industry. We are exploring our Strategic Partnerships model that serves as a powerful connector, fostering collaboration, innovation, and mutual benefit across diverse stakeholders in the Australian healthcare ecosystem. For example, this may involve brokering strategic alliances between brands, or facilitating strategic partnerships between customers and providers to unlock new avenues of collaboration and business opportunities. We believe this is not just a service; it’s a conduit for growth and collaboration.
In the ever-changing world of healthcare, leading the way means embracing change to improve health and patient outcomes. This drives everything we do in the Access, Research, and Intelligence team. Our expertise lies in enhancing patient engagement, navigating the reimbursement landscape, and unlocking new business opportunities through strategic partnerships, all aimed at improving business success and patient care.
1McKinsey and Company: What is Innovation? mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-innovation
2White.Space: Internal Innovation – Look Within for the Answer. white.space/insights/internal-innovation-look-within-for-the-answer
3https://www.iqvia.com/media/iqvia/pdfs/library/white-papers/iqvia-launch-excellence-viii.pdf
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Connect with us today and let’s work together to turn these global trends into opportunities for better patient and commercial outcomes.
Jo Atkins
Head of Access Research and Intelligence
Jo is a registered pharmacist with post graduate qualifications in Health Economics and a Master of Management with a major in Marketing from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management...
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