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Digital Intelligence Briefing

2017 Digital Trends in Healthcare and Pharma

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Digital Intelligence Briefing2017 Digital Trends in Healthcareand Pharma

Published May 2017

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1 Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

2 A sector ripe for digital disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

3 Shifting control results in a focus on the customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4 The future looks more promising than ever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

5 Actionable tips to help future-proof your healthcare/pharma business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

6 Appendix:respondentprofiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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4 Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2017 Digital Trends in Healthcare and Pharma In association with

Executive Summary 1The 2017 Digital Trends in Healthcare and Pharma report is based on a sample of almost 500 respondents working in the healthcare and pharma sector1 who were among more than 14,000 digital professionals taking part in the annual Digital Trends survey carried out in November and December 2016.

The research, conducted by Econsultancy in partnership with Adobe, reveals a sector that has just started to embark on its digital transformation journey, but with a huge potential for disruption through emerging digital technologies. After a slow start due to the complexities of a siloed sector with legacy infrastructure, alongside heavy regulation and risks associated with patient data and care, healthcare and pharma companies are likely to see exponential change over the next few years as digital data storage and sharing becomes the norm.

Thekeyfindingsfromtheresearcharesummarized below.

Healthcare companies are being pushed to transform as a result of increased consumer interest and participation

• The impact of the Internet of Things and an increase in the availability of healthcare information have led to a shift in the control of healthcare and treatment approaches to the consumer. This means

that companies are having to work harder on proving the value of their drugs and services, and on their customer service, to retain customers and win their trust.

• But the sector lags behind others in terms of digital maturity. Strict regulations and a lack of universal standards mean that newentrantsfindithardertoestablishthemselves, and levels of risk associated with human health are greater, which can limit innovation. Only 6% of companies describethemselvesasdigital-first,compared to an average of 11% across other sectors.

• Companies in the sector are aware of the opportunity that digital offers, and investing in it accordingly. Healthcare and pharma companies are more likely than those in other sectors to say they’re planning to increase their digital marketing spending in 2017 – 71% say that’s the case, compared to an average of 64% across other sectors.

• Riding the digital wave requires training, which will be a priority for healthcare and pharma companies over the next year. Training teams in new techniques, channels and disciplines is front of mind for 60% marketers in the sector, up from 46% in 2016.

Organizations are prioritizing the multichannel customer journey

• Thefocusonfillingdigital-relatedskillsgaps through training will help customer journey optimization efforts for the majority of pharma and healthcare marketers.

1 The 497 healthcare and pharma respondents who took part in the 2017 Digital Trends survey were among a total of more than 14,000 digital marketing and ecommerce professionals from all sectors who participated, from countries acrossEMEA,NorthAmericaandAsiaPacific.

5Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2017 Digital Trends in Healthcare and Pharma In association with

Almost three-quarters say that optimizing the customer journey across multiple touchpoints will be very important for their marketing over the next few years.

• Healthcare and pharma companies are 14% more likely than their peers in other sectors to consider customer journey management as a top-three tactical priority in 2017, with larger organizations even more likely to prioritize multichannel campaigns and journeys, and also to join uponlineandofflinedata.

• The industry is using content as a way of meeting the needs of consumers who are playing a more active role in their healthcare choices. Though historically content has been mainly used by pharma companies marketing to healthcare professionals, the next few years will likely see increased content marketing to consumers, with 29% of organizations surveyed prioritizing it over the next year.

• Social media is a powerful communication tool and content distribution channel, and healthcare and pharma companies clearly recognize this, with nearly two-thirds (63%, compared to an average of 55% across other sectors) planning to increase investment in social media marketing in 2017.

A data influx has created a need to invest in data and analytics training

• The boom in wearables that collect lifestyleandfitnessdataisofhugebenefitto an industry whose wealth of existing data is often locked up by regulation or in non-digitized formats. Two-thirds of healthcare and pharma companies see improving data analysis capabilities as ‘very important’ for the coming year, reflectingtheneedforskilledstafftocollect,distilandanalyzethisdatainflux.

• In addition, healthcare and pharma companies are 9% more likely than their peers in other sectors to say that data-driven marketing is a top-three strategic priority in 2017. Investment in data capabilities is set to increase for many of them.

The future

• Healthcare and pharma companies, especially larger ones, will focus on the customer experience to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

• The Internet of Things has already created a wealth of opportunities within the sector, and there are more ahead. Almost a third selected IoT as the most exciting prospect for 2020.

• Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are being incorporated into new healthcare technologies and systems, with uses ranging from training doctors in operating techniques to gamifying patient treatment plans. Over a quarter (26%) of respondents see the potential in VR and AR as the most exciting prospect for 2020.

• Digital transformation of the healthcare industry is essential, as a global ageing population puts pressure on healthcare systems worldwide. The shift from marketing drugs and treatments to marketing outcome-based approaches and tools to prevent illness is already beginning and is likely to have a big impact on marketing strategies in the longer-term future.


A sector ripe for digital disruption 2

Daniel J. Gandor, US Head of Takeda Digital Accelerator at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, aptly summarized the impact of digital in the sector: “Digital is disrupting healthcare in general, whether it is the products themselves or with patients when they look at what they want from therapy. It is no longer just a pill – it’s pills with companion apps and coaching, diagnostics and personalized medicine all wrapped into one. Digital has really been the catalyst to changing the face of healthcare.”2

The healthcare and pharma sector has the potential to be radically transformed by digitaltechnology.Atrulydigital-firstindustrycould mean a reduction in health problems, as lifestyle monitoring tools begin to predict and prevent them before they arise; it could meanthathealthisnotdefinedbytheabsence of ailments or disease, but by a person’s wellbeing and lifestyle. Companies within the sector would be able to shift their focus to prevention rather than treatment.

In some ways this is already happening, with the ‘Internet of Healthy Things’ fueling innovation and wearables becoming a lifestyle choice for many. A surge in the popularity of healthy living and exercise programs has developed alongside significantlyincreasedamountsofinformation available to consumers about health and wellness. Digital technologies are making it easy for patients to access and track their health information, at the same time facilitating seamless communication with their providers. As health systems have become more interoperable and connected in recent years, the control that

pharmaceutical and healthcare companies have over the release of information on their products and services to the general consumer has been weakened.

Although these developments have opened up tremendous opportunities for the healthcare and pharma industry, progress is slow because it still lags behind other sectors on the digital front. According to this research, only 6% of companies describe themselvesasdigital-first,comparedtoanaverage of 11% across other sectors (Figure 1). Strict regulations and a lack of universal standards mean that new entrants into the healthcarespacefindithardertoestablishthemselves, and levels of risk associated with human health are greater, which can limit innovation.

A report by Capgemini described the pharmaceutical industry as a whole as a ‘digital beginner’, with many organizations just on the cusp of initiating their digital journey. Pioneers, or ‘digirati’, who have alreadybeguntoharvestthebenefitsof their digital transformation programs, are outperforming their industry peers by an average of at least 26% in terms of profitability.3

There is no doubt that digital opportunities abound and are ripe for the picking. Accenture estimated that funding of digital startups in the US healthcare market would reach $6.5 billion in 20174, and over $4 billion were poured into the global digital health sector in 2016, according to Rock Health.5

2 https://econsultancy.com/reports/embracing-digital-transformation-in-the-pharma-and-healthcare-sectors/ 3 https://www.capgemini.com/resource-file-access/resource/pdf/The_Digital_Advantage__How_Digital_Leaders_Outperform_their_Peers_in_Every_Industry.pdf

4 https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insight-healthcare-it-start-up-funding-fueling-digital-disruption 5 https://rockhealth.com/reports/2016-year-end-funding-report-a-reality-check-for-digital-health/


Arguably the biggest result of this investment is in the trend towards consumers taking a more active role in their healthcare, often called ‘the consumerization of healthcare’; exploring the options available to them and collecting and managing their health data through wearables and tracking tools. This means that their relationship with doctors and healthcare professionals has become a two-way conversation. Greater transparency in the sector means that companies will need to work harder to prove the value of their drugs and services, particularly in markets where private healthcare is dominant.

Technology impacting the sector ranges from simple wearables like Fitbit and Apple Watch to ingestible sensors that continually feed biometric data back to doctors and physicians and can be used to manage and prevent illness. An example is a partnership between Google and DexCom, Novartis andSanofitotreatdiabetes.Thegrouphasdeveloped technologies including uploading glucose and insulin levels to the cloud in real time through contact lenses that measure glucose levels in tears. Even the smallest change in glucose and insulin levels can be tracked and trigger the attention of the patient before a problem develops.

Figure 1: To what extent does digital permeate your own organization’s marketing activities?

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Healthcare and pharma Other sectorsEconsultancy / Adobe Digital Intelligence Briefing Healthcare and pharma respondents: 349

Other sectors respondents: 4,940


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Econsultancy / Adobe Digital Intelligence Briefing Healthcare and pharma respondents: 270Other sectors respondents: 1,993

Figure 2: Proportion of company respondents saying these will be ‘very important’ for their digital marketing over the next few years

This trend impacts pharma and healthcare companies in how they market to healthcare professionals and consumers alike. As the focus leans towards prevention, companies in the sector will need to advocate a range of services, caring for a lifestyle and not just when an illness arises. As a result, some are partnering with third-party tech companies to augment their offerings and convey an increased focus on prevention.

An increased focus on partnerships is also arising as a result of the need to demonstrate the value of digital internally – particularly within the established large companies that have the hardest transformation journey ahead due to legacy infrastructure–andtofilldigitalskillsgaps.

How medical records and patient information are handled remains a challenge in a sector comprised of companies with varying levels of digital maturity, collecting and housing paper-based and digital data in different ways. Traditional and non-traditional health data from a large number of electronic health records and devices will need to be combined with historical paper-based data in a universal format, to enable the industry to become fully digital.

This is a long way from happening, but a move towards cloud-based storage means that far higher quantities of data can be stored, presenting opportunities to companies utilizing a wealth of healthcare data for research and development. An example is the IBM Watson Health platform, which was recently at the center of a partnership with Apple’s HealthKit health sensor data platform. The collaboration is using advanced analytics and natural language processing capabilities to deliver clinical decision support.

Digitization of the industry, and particularly ofpatienthealthdata,isasignificantopportunity and collaborations are helping established companies to step up their game. Major tech players such as Google (in the example above), Apple, IBM and Qualcomm Technologies are partnering with established healthcare and pharma organizations to facilitate data sharing and unlock insights from the wealth of digital healthcare data available.


In a paper on the digitization of healthcare6, McKinseyenvisagestheimpactofthefloodof health data into the industry resulting in “a world in which most care is ‘protocolized’” – that is, in which clinical decisions on the best treatment options are suggested to physicians by an automated decision algorithm informed by advanced analytics.

This research shows that although the sector lags behind others in its assessment of its own digital maturity, investment in digital is on the rise. Across all channels and disciplines that were explored, healthcare and pharma companies are more likely (or just as likely, in the case of personalization) to say they’re going to increase their budgets.

North American respondents are more than twice as likely as their peers in Europe and APACtosaytheyaredigital-first(7%vs.3%),whichispotentiallyareflectionofthehealthcare market in North America being dominated by private healthcare providers and pharma companies which may be more likely to invest in technology to stay competitive.

Increased budgets are a positive sign that companies in the sector are preparing themselves to ride the digital wave, and this research shows that they are making digital a priority internally as well as in their products. ‘Training teams in new techniques, channels and disciplines’, and ‘optimizing the customer journey across multiple touchpoints’ are the two areas that healthcare and pharma companies perceive as more important than their peers in other sectors (Figure 2).

Additionally, compared to last year, healthcare and pharma companies are 30% more likely to see training as ‘very important’ for their digital marketing over the next years (60% vs. 46%). Over two-thirds (67%) of large organizations (with annual revenues exceeding $180 million) perceive training to be very important.

Thisreflectsarecognizedbusinessneed for developing digital skills and understanding. In an Econsultancy report on digital transformation in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector7, Leo Miller of GSK Consumer Healthcare highlighted that people are a core pillar of their digital transformation program and in how they develop their capabilities. GSK is an example of a company not only developing skills internally through an unrelenting focus on training but also looking to external collaborationstobringinfreshtalenttofillskills gaps.

Ritesh Patel of OCHWW also acknowledged that the secret to long-term success essentially amounts to hiring digitally-minded people at all levels of the organization and empowering them. Patel highlighted the need for a culture that embraces and encourages innovation, a need generally accepted in companies striving for digital change, regardless of sector. These companies are discussed in more detail in Section 3.

6 http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/the-road-to-digital-success-in-pharma

7 https://econsultancy.com/blog/68221-embracing-digital-transformation-in-the-pharma-and-healthcare-sectors/


Shifting control results in a focus on the customer 3

The shift of control from healthcare professionals and companies to the consumer is forcing the industry into a customer-firstmindset.Figure 2 showed that optimizing the journey across multiple touchpoints is the most important priority for 75% of healthcare and pharma respondents over the next year, and it is the experience that customers have along this journey that sets the digital leaders apart from the rest.

The pace of change in consumer and patient expectations has accelerated as a result of digital, but keeping abreast of these changes requires a level of agility

not possible in many enterprise-level healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Large organizations are more likely to have departmental silos and bureaucratic processes – in many instances a legacy of a tortuous history of acquisitions and decentralization – as a barrier to successfully driving digital transformation. Growth typically comes with a reduction in agility, and the challenge will be for the larger organizations to keep pace with the rest.

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Econsultancy / Adobe Digital Intelligence Briefing Healthcare and pharma respondents: 349Other sectors respondents: 4,929

Figure 3: Which three digital-related areas are the top priorities for your organization in 2017?


As consumers have taken back the reins of their own healthcare, preferring more convenient ways to get medical services and access healthcare information, it has become the job of companies within the sector to optimize their journey to doing so. In fact, healthcare and pharma companies are 14% more likely than their peers in other sectors to see customer journey management as a top-three tactical priority in 2017 (24% vs. 21%).

Companies in the sector are also more likely to prioritize multichannel campaign management (21% vs. 16%) and joining uponlineandofflinedata(13%vs.9%),both essential for facilitating a consistent journey across channels. It’s apparent that the larger organizations are especially committed to being agile and meeting new challenges, as they’re more likely to prioritize these three areas than the rest. For over a third of organizations with annual revenues exceeding $180 million, customer journey management and multichannel campaign management (36% and 34% respectively) are top-three priorities, while joining up onlineandofflinedataisprioritizedbyaquarter (25%).

The desire of consumers to increase their healthcare knowledge is being met with a focus on content marketing by healthcare and pharma companies. Figure 3 shows that the biggest digital-related priority for 2017 is content marketing, selected by 29% of respondents. Content is gradually earning its place in healthcare campaigns, and the next few years will see content creation and storytelling emerging as prominent, very much in-demand skills.

One of the best ways for companies to appeal to a range of different audiences is through tailored content, and some big players are using it to their advantage. Philips, for example, credits content marketing with its move from electronics to healthcare. Through programs like its Future Health Index thought leadership hub, Philips is seeing clear gains from quality content marketing.8 A strong emphasis on targeting and personalization – the second most cited priority for 2017 (25%) – will also be key in developing and distributing tailored content.

However, most content in the sector originates from pharma companies marketing to healthcare professionals. Additionally, regulation and the wide range of patient histories and illnesses makes personalized content marketing, so successful in other sectors, much more of a challenge for this audience.

Social media emerges as a priority in terms of budgeting, with nearly two-thirds (63%, compared to an average of 55% across other sectors) planning to increase their investment in social media marketing. Many companies are still cautious with social content because of the industry’s strict regulations. In the past, they also feared that opening up pharma and healthcare companies to social media would result in a deluge of negative comments – for instance, about adverse effects of drugs.

However, studies have found this effect to be minimal, and improved social analytics and automation should allow companies to deal with negative feedback quickly and effectively. As a result, we are seeing more brands ensuring that social media is part of their marketing plan. Ed Bennett, digital strategy consultant for the healthcare industry, emphasized the importance of using social media in the healthcare and pharma sector: “If you want to connect with people and be part of their community, you need to go where the community is. You need to be connecting before you are actually needed.”9

The focus on training staff discussed previously, particularly in skills needed to create good customer experiences, is driven by a skills gap that is barely improving, according to the survey results. The proportion of those saying they have the people they need to engineer good customer experiences has increased only four percentage points in the last two years (from 57% to 61%). Healthcare and pharma companies are also less likely than their peers in other sectors to have the skills they need (61% compared to an average of 67% across other sectors).

8 https://www.marketingweek.com/2016/10/18/how-content-marketing-is-helping-philips-move-into-healthcare/9 Social media “likes” healthcare’, Health Research Institute / PwC, April 2012


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Econsultancy / Adobe Digital Intelligence Briefing Respondents: 328

10 https://www.babylonhealth.com/how-it-works

Often, the necessary skills are associated with analytics and insight. Although good data management is imperative regardless of sector, in an industry where digital disruption isresultinginaninfluxofdatafrommyriadsources, the need for skilled staff to collect, distil and analyze this data is paramount. For over two-thirds of healthcare and pharma companies (67%, compared to an average of 63% across other sectors), improving data analysis capabilities is perceived to be ‘very important’ in delivering a great customer experience over the coming year.

This parallels strategy and investment too: healthcare and pharma companies are 9% more likely than their peers in other sectors to say that data-driven marketing is a top-three strategic priority in 2017 (75% vs. 69%). Correspondingly, the vast majority plan to increase (53%) or maintain (46%) their investment in marketing analytics.

Figure 4 shows mobile is not a priority for most survey respondents. Though consumers increasingly use mobile devices for healthcare purposes, only 40% of healthcare and pharma companies (down from 42% in 2016) say that mobile is a strategic priority (compared to 49% in other sectors). This is a surprise given the disruption coming from mobile apps in the sector, including businesses like babylon, which allows access to healthcare professionals via video and messenger, and utilizesartificialintelligencetechnology10.

This research shows that while mobile health solutions are increasingly popular with consumers and the sector is brimming with opportunity for delivering anytime/anywhere virtual care, companies in this sector are underestimating the importance of this channel. Patient centricity will not become a reality if healthcare and pharma organizations are not delivering care, advice and information via the consumers’ devices of choice.

Figure 4: Please rank these five areas in order of priority for your organization in 2017.


Technologies used by companies like Push Doctor and the aforementioned babylon are facilitating a change in the way consumers approach healthcare. This requires an adjustment in the way that healthcare and pharmaceutical companies market to consumers, healthcare professionals, and each other. As discussed in Section 2, one of the biggest shifts will be towards selling products based on patient outcomes. Novartis, a pharma company with big digital ambitions, has acknowledged this and is using it to drive innovation.11

Customer experience is the top strategic priority for the vast majority of healthcare and pharma companies surveyed (93%, compared to an average of 90% across other sectors) and ‘optimizing the customer experience’ is perceived to be the most excitingopportunitybyjustoverafifth(22%).As indicated by the level of investment in customer experience and related technologies, companies in the sector seek to use this to differentiate themselves from competitorsoverthenextfiveyears.Justunder a third (30%) of organizations (and the highest proportion) said this would be a key differentiator for them, but when split by

11 http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/novartis-on-digitizing-medicine-in-an-aging-world

The future looks more promising than ever 4

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Figure 5: Over the next five years, what is the primary way your organization will seek to differentiate itself from competitors?


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Figure 6: Looking ahead, which of these do you regard as the most exciting prospect for 2020?

Customer experience is the top strategic priority for 93% of companies

revenue, the larger organizations (such as Novartis) emerge as nearly twice as likely as smaller organizations to say so (Figure 5).

This is likely as a result of higher budgets allocated to innovation and digital initiatives. Pfizerisanexampleofalargepharmabusiness that is planning for the future through experimentation at grassroots level. The company’s mantra is to fail inexpensively until success is found, and execute it through its ‘Dare to Try’ program.12 This aimed to change the culture of the organization to enable agility and change, and the program is now a branded feature of the company.

Figure 6 shows the areas that pharma companies are seeing as the most exciting prospect over the next few years. The Internet of Things and connected devices are the most exciting for a third of respondents, probably as a result of them currently being the most tangible product of digital disruption, with concrete and successful examples of use cases. By 2025, Intel predicts that the global worth of IoT technology from healthcare devices will amount to $2.5 trillion, and by 2020, it will add $285 billion of healthcare provider value to the global economy.13

12 https://econsultancy.com/blog/68861-digital-transformation-in-pharma-pfizer-s-dare-to-try-project/13 http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/healthcare-it/solutions/documents/iot-healthcare-policy-principles-paper.html


Over time, the rise of telemedicine and diagnosticsusingartificialintelligencetechnology will see AI moving to front of mind for healthcare organizations. These technologies have the potential to disrupt businesses that are based heavily on physical facilities and staff.

Virtual and augmented reality are the second most exciting prospect for 2020, selected by 26% of respondents. Just one example of virtual reality (VR) being applied in the healthcare and pharma sector is the training ofjuniordoctors,whowouldotherwisefinditdifficulttogainexperienceofoperatingon patients. VR is being used to create numerous life-like, pre-programmed training situations that allow doctors to respond and practice on robots rather than humans. In the future, planned partnerships of the VR and robotic technologies with Oculus Rift could see this type of training taken even further.14

Virtual and augmented reality are also being used to gamify treatment that would otherwise become mundane, in an aim to increase adherence to treatment; again in keeping with an outcome-based focus. For instance, physiotherapists are beginning to use VR to make repetitious movements into a game offering tracking and feedback, benefitingboththepatientandthephysicianin terms of the data collected, which can be used to improve the current patient’s outcome, and to guide future treatments.

It has taken some time for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector to get moving with digital, but as paper documentation gives way to cloud-based data collection, and businesses capitalize on the data that consumers are providing through the Internet of Things, we could see rapid transformation in the sector in the next few years.

The value in this is enormous – not just monetarily but in terms of health to the millions of patients whose treatment may be improved or even made unnecessary through earlier diagnosis and preventative actions. This could be vital to ensure the sector does not collapse under the weight of a global ageing population, which is already putting enormous pressure on healthcare systems worldwide.

14 https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2016/oct/19/virtual-reality-game-healthcare-hospitals-simulation


1. Allow the customer to take control and accept a shift to an outcome-based approach in order to keep up

The wealth of information now available to consumers on the healthcare options available to them means that their ability to shop around has increased. They are taking control of their own healthcare and driving change, opting for more convenient ways to get medical services and access healthcare information.

Companies that adopt an approach of assisting consumers with their health over the long term, both in the treatment and prevention of illness, will win their trust. It’s not about relinquishing control, but about acknowledging the fact that the way healthcare services are accessed and used ischanging,andflexibilityinyourapproachis required in order to keep up with these changes.

2. Cater for the consumer desire for information through all channels

Effective marketing now requires communication across all channels, with consistent messaging and a smooth journey across channels and devices. Consumers are increasingly expecting the same level of experience from the brands they interact with, whether they’re incumbent players in the B2C sector or healthcare providers.

Being able to deliver marketing messages in whichever format your customer wishes to consume them will result in higher engagement and advocacy. Those who give consumers the choice will win the race in this new transparent environment.

3. Invest in digital skills that can make use of an influx of data in the sector

The healthcare and pharma sector is data rich, and only getting richer. Consumers are generating vast amounts of data in their everyday lives, but these sources of information often remain untapped. This pool of (increasingly real-time) healthcare intelligence can help provide a care continuum for patients at a personal level. Ensure your business has the right technology and data skills to take advantage, as digitization of health records creates opportunities for both healthcare and pharma companies and their customers.

Though strict regulations still represent one ofthemostdifficultbarrierstoovercome,startups specializing in data collection and analysis are beginning to emerge. Partnering with these startups might be an easier route for those struggling to be agile and nimble with the data they have access to, or bolster the internal data they have.

Actionable tips to help future-proof your healthcare/pharma business 5


4. Facilitate internal change through a culture of encouraging innovation that can be scaled up if successful

Healthcare and pharma organizations need to adopt a startup approach and create a culture that encourages and embraces innovation, supporting the ability to fail by enabling experimentation in an agile fashion, but without compromising compliance. These experiments, controlled in scope and size, can be run on a smaller scale and used to prove or disprove hypotheses. There’s also anaddedbenefit:theinsightscanbesharedacross the organization, helping to develop skills and creating the right environment to facilitate a focus on innovation in the future.

The healthcare and pharma sector is data rich, and only getting richer


Appendix: respondent profiles 6

57%

22%

10%8%

1% 1% 1%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

North America Europe Asia Australia / NewZealand

Middle East Africa Other


Figure 7: In which region are you based?


2%

1%

2%

3%

3%

5%

5%

6%

28%

45%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Other

Indonesia

Taiwan

China

Philippines

Singapore

Malaysia

Thailand

India

Australia / New Zealand

9%

1%

1%

1%

4%

5%

5%

5%

6%

8%

10%

11%

14%

20%

0% 10% 20% 30%

Other

Austria

Finland

Norway

Netherlands

Spain

Belgium

Italy

Switzerland

Denmark

Sweden

France

Germany

UK

Respondents: 108

Respondents: 87

Respondents based in Europe

Figure 8: In which of the following countries are you based?

Respondents based in Asia Pacific

Figure 9: In which of the following countries are you based?

Econsultancy / Adobe Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing



30%

33%

37%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

B2C B2B B2B and B2C (equally)

25%

2%

2%

2%

16%

18%

35%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Other

VP / SVP / EVP

Board level

C-level / general manager

Director / senior director

Junior executive / associate

Manager

Respondents: 497

Respondents: 496

Figure 10: What best describes your job role?

Figure 11: Are you more focused on B2B or B2C as a business?




13%

19%

13%

11%

17%

27%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

<$1.2 million $1.2 – $12 million $12 – $60 million $60 – $180 million

$180 million –$1.2 billion

More than $1.2billion

Respondents: 271

Figure 12: What is your annual company revenue?


in association with

Digital Intelligence Briefing2017 Digital Trends in Healthcareand Pharma

Published April 2017

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