Some examples of how Healthcare has been changed by COVID-19 already and their potential longevity

The large-scale changes which COVID-19 has initiated in the health sector and the subsequent global response to battle the virus will have long and far-reaching impacts. The exact nature of these large-scale changes is still difficult to predict due to the ongoing volatile nature of the virus and the variations in national responses. However, below are a selection of the key changes already happening:

The first of these is the rapid increase in digital adoption. All stakeholders in the health ecosystem have had to re-evaluate how they have undertaken business F2F and due to restrictions implement digital alternatives to their ways of working, which if successful will hopefully cause a paradigm shift within health. Pharmaceutical companies with their armies of sales, medical and market access representatives are having to redesign their approach to communicating and partnering with customers. No longer is a pharma rep able to arrange a meeting with an HCP (healthcare professional) and walk into a hospital at lunchtime armed with key messages and sandwiches. Technologically progressive pharma companies had already been looking into how pharma reps could interact with HCPs via digital means such as Zoom etc but these forays into direct digital engagements had been moderately effective. Since quarantine, pharma companies have been forced into implementing technologies and processes for their field force to be able to engage remotely with customers through pre-existing tech such as their CRM systems.

This necessity to enable digital forms of communication between Reps and HCPs should lead Pharma leadership to re-evaluate how pharma reps engage with customers. Is it necessary for a pharma rep to drive 3 hours to a hospital in their territory for an hour-long meeting when they could arrange a digital engagement in 5 minutes and share all the same content and messages using their iPad? Research has shown that HCPs value the F2F experience of meeting with their local pharma rep and where possible F2F is still the preferred choice of communication, but does each meeting really need to be in-person when a video call offers the opportunity to meet at a fraction of the travel and time expense? This paradigm shift towards digital engagement should be equally matched by an up skilling of field reps in digital technologies and digital marketing tools. My client recently said to me that the Sales rep is like the quarterback and pulls the string on each accounts orchestrating the plays and bringing their colleagues in when needed, but if the sales rep calls the same play each time because that is all they know they don’t stand much chance of winning the game. Will the unexpected venture into digital engagement be immediately reversed post quarantine or will the enforced adoption period act as a launchpad for wider spread use of remote technologies?

The sudden need for digital engagement isn’t only impacting upon the Rep-HCP relationship, it is now more than ever before essential that the Doctor-Patient relationship be available online. Current digital appointment services such as ‘GP at Hand’ by Babylon provide an attractive solution to the obstacle of seeing a GP in our current environment. GP surgeries have been forced by COVID-19 to adopt digital practices, overcoming any pre-existing scepticism they had for them to be able to function and treat patients. Will COVID-19 and our subsequent isolation act as a catalyst for more primary care services to be offered online now that we have had the uncomfortable teething period? The transition to digital communication methods could be a positive consequence out of this awful pandemic.

The second change has been the attitude towards the NHS and the collaboration between government and industry. As a high-profile doctor recently commented, ’COVID-19 has highlighted the need for a National Healthcare system and has probably saved the NHS for another generation’. The advantage of national healthcare systems has never been more obvious when you compare the plight of countries such as South Korea and the UK versus the United States in the battle against the virus. The ability to mobilise political and economic tools to create a unified approach has highlighted the necessity of a national healthcare system not just for equality but also for efficiency. The government has been able to spearhead the response through the NHS but also through an increased willingness to collaborate in the time of national crisis. The Ventilator Challenge UK is a remarkable example of how cross-industry involvement when aligned on a common objective (produce more medical-grade ventilators) can be so productive. There are numerous other examples of collaboration between companies who were previously competitors, especially in the development of vaccines. These short term successes should be held up as a testament to the power of collaboration and used to implement a longer-term global collaboration framework especially in areas of rare disease and unmet clinical needs where the financial cost for one company alone would make it unattractive (development of orphan drugs are an example of this already). This global framework would function as an incentive system for companies to work together successfully to bid for funding in order to solve medical unmet needs.

The final change is the realisation that due to the increasingly globalised world; the spread of disease will be faster and more difficult to prevent so hard lessons will need to be learnt. The first lesson and potential change will be the renewed importance of Public Health. The UK used to be the world leader in public health, however, for a few different reasons UK Public Health has dropped in importance and success. The Public Health budget was moved out of the ring-fenced budget of the NHS and moved into the budgets of local authorities. Recent austerity measures have cut deeper in local authorities than in comparison to the NHS so a reduction in funding has hampered our Public Health institutions. Public health data has then also been subject to collection by local authorities leading to a varied and mismatched dataset. Public health in recent years, has become less attractive to post-graduate doctors leading to a reduction in the talent filling the ranks of public health agencies. COVID-19 and Quarantine have led to a sudden, return to the spotlight for Public Health and with this increased attention, (hopefully) comes increased investment leading to longer-term changes.

As always, only the coming weeks and months will decide whether the above changes are short term impacts during the isolation madness or the longer-term paradigm shifts I mentioned. Until either a successful vaccine is produced, or herd immunity is reached we are going to be hearing a lot more about the wide-ranging impacts of COVID-19 on our lives and healthcare ecosystem.

These thoughts are my own and do not reflect the views of the company I work for.

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/14/gsk-and-sanofi-join-forces-to-work-on-coronavirus-vaccine

https://www.ventilatorchallengeuk.com/