Digital Transformation is the Key to Succeeding in the Future of the Life Sciences Industry

Digital transformation is no more a catchword; it has become a strategic imperative for life sciences organizations to improve their business operations, boost customer engagement, and innovate new products and services.

Many leading companies are harnessing the power of digital technologies such as telemedicine, virtual conferences, and remote equipment to level up connectivity across the globe and enable personalized care. The life sciences industry has much to gain from digital transformation and could also take advantage of lessons learned from other industries.

This blog will take a quick look at the landscape of digital transformation in life sciences, highlighting a range of perspectives.

Digital Transformation 2022: A Life Sciences Perspective

Currently, the life sciences industry is at a tipping point. Companies know that digitally enabled organizations are creating the future of health and clinical niches. However, many approach digital transformation without a holistic business transformation lens. Over the last few years, a confluence of events has reshaped the life sciences industry by elevating and accelerating digital plays for the future of digital health. Enterprises that know these impacts are also aware of the change they need to adopt digital transformation in life sciences.

Implementing a shotgun approach in today’s digital healthcare world will not work for your business or your consumers. Today, organizations need to grasp this reality move quickly to have a competitive advantage.

Top Six Benefits of Digital Transformation in Life Sciences

The advantages of a complete digital transformation are long-lasting as they create the way for new capabilities that will essentially bring a shift to the life sciences and healthcare industry. Let’s have a look at some benefits of digital transformation in life sciences:

Digital Ecosystems

The industry is experiencing challenges like never before. A vast number of touchpoints and sources make the entire experience complex. Regarding digital transformation in life sciences, having a digital ecosystem helps as it creates a digital repository of all the data.

Developing a viable and lasting digital ecosystem means opting for sustainable aspects. Some of the examples that are outside the healthcare industry are -

• Apple’s digital ecosystem has incredible user retention along with excellent brand loyalty among consumers
• BMW has maximized its digital data management, enabling users to avail a superior range of privacy and security

An ideal life sciences digital ecosystem can help in every step of the patient’s journey, such as -

• Providing the whole drug treatment for people in one place and overall, a better quality of life
• Precise and accurate diagnosis for early-stage patients
• Offering better awareness, sustainable health conditions, and predictions for patient care when at a preclinical stage and unsure of the disease

Digital Twin

Digital Twin plays a crucial role in shaping the digital transformation journey in life sciences. Constructing a digital twin means having a complete replica of real-life processes, instruments, and structures. Organizations such as NASA, GE, and Boeing have utilized this concept for years to model engine operations and predict their functions and service needs over time. For the life sciences industry, digital twins improve patient outcomes while decreasing operating margins. It can also help in strategic planning and immersive digital replicas of patients.

As indicated above, the digital twin is a process assistant with online and real-time data access. This includes all historical information and current process conditions. Now the digital twin can be utilized to create simulations through all the feasible, effective models often based on Bayesian analysis. But how can it save pharmaceutical and healthcare manufacturers? Well, digital twins can help save millions in expenditures across multiple aspects of the manufacturing process and reduce the quantity of needed process performance qualifications to set a dynamic control strategy.

Take Atos as an example of how digital twins can help in process optimization and drug development. Atos is a digital transformation consultancy based in Bezons, France. In collaboration with Siemens, the engineering firm Atos launched a project last year. This project was meant to help the pharmaceutical industry improve production through innovative solutions based on digital twins. This project focused on developing a digital replica of the entire pharmaceutical manufacturing process. The involved technological facets are artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Each element was put together to deliver better flexibility and efficiency across the production of several pharmaceutical products.

Digital Experience

For a good reason, customers’ digital experience has become prevalent for the life sciences industry. The possibilities are endless as technology evolves and creates better opportunities to serve patients. A solid digital experience can also deliver more targeted and valuable customer insights to your organization.

It is necessary to accomplish the other increased revenue and innovation goals for pharmaceutical and med-tech companies. With strict restrictions on face-to-face meetings, digital experience has become one of the few ways to connect with consumers and customers more effectively. This made it possible to emphasize CX, which accelerated majorly via virtual trials and telemedicine.

Pharma and med-tech companies must think more broadly about these different experiences since patients feel about their experiences more broadly. Expanding CX can bring new business opportunities for pharma and med-tech companies. For example, if your company is selling a hip or knee implant to hospitals, think beyond just selling, such as having a digital experience by showcasing the surgeon’s walkthrough of how to complete the procedure.

Digital Intervention

Implementing digital transformation in life-science business offers the advantage of digital intervention. Digital intervention in life sciences is a technique to serve patients through digital remote tactics so they stick with their treatment plan more efficiently, effectively, and promptly throughout their care continuum period.
 
Remember that adherence to the rules of treatment plans and complying with the policies and prescriptions are two of the most crucial summons for enterprises (tech-med companies) and consumers (patients). However, digital intervention allows them to adhere to and comply with terms and conditions. 

Digital Commercial Models

Another benefit that life sciences organizations could leverage from digitalization is the opportunity to digitize their commercial models. 

These digital commercial models allow you to find the best digital solutions to streamline the organizations’ processes. Commercial teams can leverage CRM data they already have on HCP preferences, as much as it is populated automatically with each customer engagement. Combining this data with additional patient, prescriber, and sales data, helps organizations enhance segmentation and targeting.

Also, as service providers prefer virtual platforms to communicate about their products and consumptions, this digitalization enables them to obtain maximum return on their investments (ROI). Thus, digital transformation aids healthcare providers in financial and monetary manners as well. 

Intelligent Automation

Intelligent Automation can automate and optimize end-to-end processes, resulting in reduced costs, improved performance, productivity, and business agility. The perfect synergy of AI and Machine Learning, content services, and digital process automation can be a game-changer.

Several automation opportunities are available across life sciences, pharmaceutical, and medical device businesses. Additional intelligence, predictive trend analysis, and process automation can help deliver medicines and devices more quickly to the market. Intelligent Automation can also integrate data and extract information from several documents to optimize and speed up the process of regulatory documentation, patient monitoring, and participant recruiting.

To make communications and processes more agile, intelligent Automation is of great help. For example, businesses can receive tracking information on the supply and distribution of critical medicines from raw material to development to distribution, improving overall deployment. In addition, life sciences and med-tech companies can create robust human connections with IA by supporting patient care centers. For instance, chatbots can tackle tasks like updating patient information so that HCPs can work more on patient interactions.

Moving Forward in A Digital World

The healthcare industry is currently facing tremendous change and opportunity. However, most enterprises have yet to move on from their limited knowledge of driving digital transformation. To redefine the future, it will be crucial for med-tech and life sciences enterprises to start embracing and initiating a broader digital transformation program that will position them as industry leaders.

Get ready to take a transformational leap in life sciences! Explore Icreon’s Digital Transformation Services.