Digital Pharma East 2023: Panel Day 3

The final morning saw a handful of mainstage programs covering a variety of topics, from breaking down silos and omnichannel strategies – a common theme throughout Digital Pharma East – to social media participating and content.

If the first day of the conference introduced lofty topics such as innovation and the second day took on disruption across multiple aspects of the industry, the final morning offered up some tactical advice around implementation of new ideas.

Jim DeLash , Omni-Channel Marketing Director Vaccines US at GSK provided a format for creating a marketing campaign brief designed to help define objectives and metrics “The ‘better brief’ concept incites thinking about behavior change and gets us asking the right questions,” said DeLash. “It’s designed to get people to think differently.”

Thinking differently can be a challenge for pharma and panelists throughout the three-day conference encouraged attendees to do just that, and to help break down the silos within companies that inhibit innovative thinking. “Real innovation comes out of a need,” said Cathryn Silvera , Senior Specialist, Client Partnerships, VDX.tv. “It’s those challenges that get us there, that create the innovation.”

AI, another ever present topic in pharma, can help solve for some of these challenges by reducing the human time allocated to mundane tasks and help speed new programs through bureaucratic requirements and assist with the more human-centric tasks. “AI can help sales reps better prepare for their visits,“ said Deirdre Diener , Senior Director, Digital Transformation - Omnichannel, Data and Platform Operations & Innovation, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. “AI is the fuel to make work faster, less complex, more effective for humans.”

Speed and innovation are not things pharma is known for, but areas where AI can help. AI can be the fuel to make work faster, less complex, more effective for humans, noted panelists during the session “Data Optimization: Breaking Down the Silos to Maximize the Value of your Data.”

Regulatory adherence hangs over the industry and most conversations included at least one mention of how these rules often get in the way of innovation and pharma’s ability to move quickly to meet new challenges and opportunities.

Content creation is paramount in health marketing and Digital Pharma East devoted much of its final morning to the topic. Content isn’t only king for health care providers, but also provides an opportunity for sponsored products that can reach physicians across a variety of channels. Natalie M. , VP of Global Sales, HCP Engagement Solutions at Wolters Kluwer presented valuable insights into what resonates with health care providers and identified opportunities to increase reach and connection. “We have the ability to change patient behavior with content and improve outcomes,” she said.

Pharma is, indeed, focused on improving patient outcomes and if the content and conversations had over three days at Digital Pharma East are any indication, those efforts will require an innovative spirit, organizational willingness to test, learn and disrupt the tried and true – all with a little help from AI.?