Team leads expert panel on digital health in pharma

What does a patient centric e-culture mean for the industry?

Forward by Charlotte Harris, Head of Front End Innovation:

“Recently, the term e-culture has been used more and more frequently to reflect that we are living in a world that’s increasingly shaped by digital tools and technologies. One positive outcome from the pandemic is the huge shift we’ve seen in people’s experiences and attitudes towards digital solutions. Almost overnight, many of us were required to start accessing digital solutions for the first time, from scanning QR codes to conducting video calls with our doctors. Three years on we’ve learnt that elderly and vulnerable populations can access and use smart phones and enabling technologies.

Likewise, whilst data privacy is still a very big challenge in digital health, particularly in the EU where GDPR and data protection regulations are in place, we’ve found that our attitudes to sharing data probably aren’t quite as negative as expected – especially if that’s what’s required to access the services that we are reliant on.

Populations have been given a clear reminder of the pressures that our healthcare systems are under and the need for new solutions, such as digital health, to help alleviate this. People have seen that we each must play our part and be more tolerant and accepting of new ways of managing our health, if we are to have a healthcare system which is available when we need it.

What this means for the industry is that we now have a population primed for digital health.”

What are the opportunities for digital solutions in healthcare?

“The data generated by digital solutions gives a granularity that’s never been seen before, with the potential to speed up everything from drug discovery to diagnosis. It has the ability to democratise healthcare, making it increasingly accessible to more populations – whether that’s participating in clinical trials or receiving healthcare outside of a clinical environment.

Of course, there are still challenges to overcome in access, infrastructure and the inequality faced due to social demographic, age and race. However, there are countless companies, people and innovators striving to build digital solutions in this new and exciting world of digital health.

We spoke to some of these innovators during our panel discussion, diving into their experiences with patient digital adoption, the challenges of implementation and the need for good behavioural science techniques when designing solutions.”

Want to find out how to utilise digital solutions in your next device development? Get in touch to speak to one of our experts today.

Get in touch