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Analytics Sharing

June 2014

Wealth of Information The convergence of separate health systems has led to a great increase in data, which some organisations are struggling to get to grips with. Harnessing analytic tools and sharing knowledge is the best way forward

Heather E Fraser at IBM

The healthcare ecosystem is the convergence of otherwise separate entities, such as pharmaceutical and life sciences organisations, healthcare providers and payers, as well as social and government agencies. This convergence, along with enhanced connectivity and mobility, has resulted in a tremendous increase in healthcare-related data, which can help create insights and inform actions to ultimately drive better outcomes.

To gain optimum value, information must be shared across the entire ecosystem. Today, however, most organisations are ill-equipped to share information within their own walls, let alone across the entire ecosystem. A recent IBM global study

explored how pharma and other life sciences companies can position themselves within the healthcare ecosystem to optimise their performance through the use of analytics (1). The survey generated 555 responses from executives, of which 188 were from life sciences companies, 228 from healthcare providers, and 139 from payers. It was conducted with healthcare companies in North America, Europe, India, Japan, China, Singapore and Mexico.

Executive Voices

Firstly, let us consider why analytics is such an important competitive differentiator for companies today. In another

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Analytics in Action

From managing small details to large processes, analytics can assist in research through development, into sales and marketing, and beyond. Figure 1 shows some of the potential benefits that can be realised from applying analytics across the entire healthcare ecosystem. Consider the following examples of how life sciences companies are driving the use of analytics across their own value chain and beyond:

Select better drug candidates in research – by leveraging real-world data with advanced analytic techniques, including crowd-sourced methods, it is possible to reduce waste due to unsuccessful product candidates by as much as 60% (3)

Select the right people for clinical trials – difficulty recruiting patient volunteers can double the original development timeline of Phase 2-4 trials across all therapeutic areas. Analytic tools are being employed to better match patients with clinical trials, track performance and look for leading indicators (4)

Ensure patients adhere to treatment regimes – providing an adherence and patient monitoring service, driven by analytics performed on remote monitoring data, can ensure that drugs are taken and prescriptions refilled in a timely manner

Provide innovative personalised treatment management – by analysing large numbers of anonymous patient data, a decision support solution can be developed and provided at the point-of-care to enable personalised treatment

Invest in holistic care of the chronically ill – recognising that the support carers give to patients goes beyond just demonstrating the efficacy of the medication, life sciences companies are working with other healthcare professionals to drive better outcomes for the chronically ill through the use of analytics

Making it Happen

The study attempted to define the capabilities that companies will need to focus on to enable the sharing of information and insights within the four walls of the individual organisations, as well as across the wider ecosystem. Here are five of the competencies that companies will need to optimise:

1. Sponsorship and Adoption Two-thirds of the organisations that were interviewed

reported that they considered analytics a priority, and have an analytics strategy or roadmap in place. One US executive said: “Analytics is built in from the grass-roots at our company and evolves as an approach to inform our strategy.” However, organisations are struggling with understanding and using advanced techniques.

recent study, IBM talked to over 4,000 C-level corporate executives (CxOs), of which 100 were from life sciences companies. Chief executive officers told us they consider technology to be the single most important external force shaping their organisations, but it was other CxOs that provided commentary on analytics and its use across the various functions (2). Specifically:

Four-fifths of chief information officers told us that over the next three to five years they intend to focus IT on using analytics to create deep insights, from both structured and unstructured data, in order to increase competitiveness

Supply chain executives are putting advanced analytics and modelling tools in place to predict demand and accelerate decision-making, creating a truly customer-activated operating model

Those executives leading human resources in outperforming enterprises rely more heavily on big data and analytics, especially in improving decision-making in the area of talent management

Finally, chief marketing officers believe technology, such as advanced analytics tools, will play a big role in helping them realise their goals in capturing customer insights

Patient Provider Payer

Life sciences Other stakeholders (social care, organisation government, legal, regulators)

Personalised/holistic care

Reduced time to provide the right treatment

Matching the patient with the most appropriate physician, enabling the best possible care

Remote monitoring and medical homes enable more efficient chronic condition management with fewer hospitalisations

Enhanced patient safety and care quality, greater operational efficiency and minimal clinical claims fraud

Mapping disease trajectory and prognosis, enabling more enhanced, timely care

Patient segmentation that enables choosing the most appropriate medication for each patient

Identify better product candidates and facilitate fast, cost-efficient development of new drugs, medical devices and diagnostics

Better match patients with clinical trials and track real-time performance for faster regulatory approvals

Population health management without losing sight of each individual patient and his or her needs

Figure 1: Some potential benefits of using analytics across the healthcare ecosystem

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the capacity and having the right people to extract valuable intelligence from it.

5. How Are We Doing? Metrics to measure success should be in place from day

one of any analytics project, and tracked via a balanced scorecard approach. Organisations could start with the key metrics used to manage their business today, but they should be used for much more than just determining decreases in costs and increases in revenue. Metrics can measure key areas such as successful time-to-market for life sciences products and services; they are a major component of ensuring the adoption of analytics projects across the entire enterprise.

Conclusion

Looking to the future, the ability to access and derive meaningful insights from the wealth of information available will become a necessity. The life sciences organisations that can harness and share that data to create insights, inform actions and drive better outcomes – across all the components of the healthcare ecosystem – will be those most likely to become the outperformers of tomorrow.

References1. Analytics across the ecosystem: A prescription for optimizing

healthcare outcomes, IBM Institute for Business Value, September 2013

2. The customer-activated enterprise, IBM Institute for Business Value, October 2013

3. Trusting the science that drives your business: A systematic approach to verify scientific claims, IBM Institute for Business Value, May 2013

4. New tools automatically match patients with clinical trials, Nature Medicine, July 2013

About the authorHeather Fraser has over 30 years’ experience in the life sciences and healthcare sectors, working across community pharmacy, the pharma industry, and in consultancy. She is currently the global leader for healthcare and life sciences in IBM’s

Institute for Business Value, where she develops strategies on related business issues. Recent papers have investigated the future of the life sciences industry and the implications for research, clinical and pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and the supply chain, as well as alliance management and convergence across the pharma and healthcare industries. Email: hfraser@uk.ibm.com