What Pharma Is Learning From Retail: It's All About The App
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
We are connected at the hip to our cell phones, so it makes sense the pharma industry is setting its sights on the phone to engage and educate patients in its overarching quest for patient centricity.
Last week, I wrote a blog about the similarities I’ve noticed between the retail industry and the pharma industry as they both turn to technology to engage customers and patients alike. The retail industry today boasts a number of mobile initiatives that help customers browse and purchase items, compare prices, download coupons, and manage loyalty program points. Many of these apps serve as a way for customers to connect with each other as well as with the company. Take Victoria’s Secret for example; the company just launched a new mobile messaging app that it uses to announce company news and with which customers can chat about various topics.
While there are a number of emerging technologies (i.e. smartwatches and other wearables) in the healthcare industry that track and promote general wellbeing, BMI Healthcare tells PM Live there’s a big opportunity for pharma companies to explore apps that provide support for sick patients.
A recent headline gives me hope that we are forging ahead on the road to a patient-centric world with the help of the app. According to a Medcity News article, Bayer, Merck, and Novartis were some of the 2013 leaders in app development, all of which at the time were boasting more than 100 apps each. (That total may include apps in different languages.) Many of these apps were developed as treatment companions so patients could manage meds, record treatments/infusions, track test results or medication symptoms, and learn more about their conditions. Some of the most common conditions that are paired with apps include asthma, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, and diabetes.
A survey from Accenture released in March determined this push for apps is coming from patients. According to the survey of 2,000 patients taking long-term, short-term, and lifestyle meds, the mobile app was a preferred method of connecting with a pharma company for 44 percent of patients.
Shawn Roman, managing director in Accenture’s Life Sciences industry group, says, “There is tremendous opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to become more engaged with the patients they treat and truly understand how to help deliver a better patient outcome. Our survey findings show that this process can start early, with three out of four (74 percent) saying that outreach by pharmaceutical companies to patients should be initiated as soon as a patient starts taking a medication.” What better way to reach a patient than on their phone which goes anywhere they go?
While in the retail industry, it’s difficult to walk into a store and miss the in-store signage promoting the features and perks of downloading the store’s app, the pharma industry is faced with a different set of challenges when it comes to app outreach. A recent report from Research2Guidance found the number of downloads of pharma apps tend to be much lower, partially because of the size of certain disease populations that some of these apps are catered to.
Not to mention, a lot of pharma apps aren’t available globally and often are only geared toward three or fewer countries, according to the report. They also are more product-centric. So unlike retail apps that offer a variety of features for a large, diverse customer base, a pharma app promoting a specific product will naturally have a smaller audience.
However, for those of you at companies looking to connect with and engage more patients via apps, there are some services patients would like to see pharma offer more regularly. Accenture found that patients would be interested in apps that provide product information, financial assistance, rewards programs, measuring and tracking alerts, and physician referrals, among other services.