We are premiering a special episode of CareTalk, a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare system, to close out the day.

Host John Driscoll (CEO, CareCentrix) debates COVID-19 policies, drug prices, digital health, Medicare, racial disparities and more with his esteemed guests. Check out other episodes and learn more about CareTalk here: www.CareTalkPodcast.com

For payers and providers working to create value-based care models and aligned financial incentives, the newfound focus on addressing and paying for the underlying Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) may be the missing link.

Yet the proliferation of digital solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic closed as many gaps as it exposed, proving transportation and other SDOH factors are as big a barrier as technology for many, especially Medicare and Medicaid populations.

The urgency of COVID-19 proved that the notoriously slow healthcare industry can swiftly remodel outdated ways of working to usher in change. We’re just getting started meeting the digital consumer’s needs and expectations for usability, connectivity, hyper-personalization, contextualization and integration.

All aspects of healthcare are seeing massive increases in post-pandemic demand. Hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), pharmacies, physician + specialist care offices are seeing double-digit growth projections for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the volume growth is predicted to drive down the cost of surgical procedures. Join our panelist as they share predictions for how these dramatic shifts could impact the business of healthcare, and where they think the biggest bets will be placed based on.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw life sciences and pharmaceutical companies face bigger challenges than ever, especially when it came to launching new drugs to the market. Reaching the right customers, in the right place, at the right time, had never been harder. 

And today, although the pandemic is officially over, many lasting effects remain – especially in the pharmaceutical industry. Driven by the pandemic, omnichannel in pharma has made its mark as the way to enhance engagement across all channels and multiple stakeholders. For pharmaceutical and medtech organizations, this shift to an omnichannel model means personalized engagement, improved revenues and quality of care, and most importantly, better patient outcomes.

In other words, the pharmaceutical industry has adopted more holistic engagement models that put patients first. They benefit from a streamlined customer journey managed via accessible digital channels, and a better, more customer centric approach to patient care.

At the 8th Annual Emids Healthcare Summit, Andy Corts, SVP of Research and Digitization at SignalPath joined Calyx CEO Gavin Nichols for an in-depth discussion on how pharma has eliminated long-standing silos and adopted holistic engagement models that puts patients first.

What is Omnichannel in Pharma?

Omnichannel in pharma refers to a coordinated and integrated strategy where pharmaceutical companies interact with healthcare professionals (HCPs), patients, and other stakeholders across various platforms. The goal of omnichannel in pharma is to streamline workflows for providers, while offering a seamless, customer centric patient experience – regardless of how or where an interaction takes place.

The Shift to Omnichannel in Pharma

Over the past few years, digital transformation has proliferated and opened new mechanisms – including online portals, text messaging and telehealth – to support remote interactions and omnichannel engagement in pharma. Pharma is shifting to this omnichannel model, that promises a rising quality of care, patient outcomes, revenues and innovation.

To improve patient experience and engagement, the healthcare industry needs to adapt to changes in the way people consume information. For that, new tools, resources and efficient communications are required. Pharma and medtech organizations are ushering in new leadership focused on patient engagement and being deliberate about investments. Simultaneously, technology companies are entering the arena to drive the omnichannel experience; for example, by aiding the implementation of GenAI into healthcare.

Recognizing that they have lagged behind other industries in deploying digital solutions, both constituents – technology and pharma – are making incredible progress to remedy this gap.    

The Value of Data

Panelists agreed that in the shift to an omnichannel world and decentralized clinical trials, one of the greatest success factors will be data. Walls are finally coming down around data liquidity and fragmentation, making data analytics equally as important as security and compliance. Because without extracting any meaningful value, data is just data.

On one hand, the advent of digital health tools, wearables and other tracking technologies enables pharma companies to capture massive amounts of patient and healthcare data and use this to gain meaningful insights. Investments in tokenization will enrich data sets and connect valuable stakeholders like physicians and pharmacies. Articulating what does and doesn’t work will help pivot resources and accelerate the development of personalized medicine. For most healthcare companies, it’s paramount to rely on both internal and external partnerships to develop an integrated data analytics strategy that facilitates seamless interaction and care delivery across different channels.

The Omnichannel Patient Experience

The patient will always be at the center of healthcare. Without them there would be no advancements in treatments, no progress in medical research, and no discovery of new therapies. Moving forward, organizations must undertake an agile transformation of their people, processes and technologies to embrace a patient-centric reality.

As a bright side of the pandemic, patients have become more comfortable with digital health solutions, and are more open to remote monitoring and care delivery at home. They are also vastly attuned to their individual needs and forging digital connections via online support groups, discussion boards or other forums. 

With a successful omnichannel model, pharma can empower patients through trial recruitment and education, broadening accessibility to vital therapies and treatments – particularly for underserved populations. In the end, decreasing the complexity and go-to-market time for new drugs will positively affect the patient experience.

Omnichannel engagement in pharma and healthcare is about embracing a new model where agile teams combine human-centered design thinking, digital engagement and analytics to help deliver the right message at the right time through the right channel.

Getting Started with Emids

As pharma pursues the omnichannel experience, Emids is uniquely positioned to enable data and help accelerate value. By leveraging a wealth of experience specific to healthcare, Emids helps clients improve the lives of patients by enabling data insights and executing a data infrastructure ready for value creation. 

With a rising mental health epidemic, has the time finally come for Whole Person Health? Digital solutions can now enable personalized coaching and treatment at the scale and price point that could result in mental health solutions being a ubiquitous part of the healthcare system. This panel will explore what’s different for whole-person, population health approaches now vs. a decade (or more) ago.

Lack of data access left ALL of us handicapped in our ability to combat COVID-19. The need for data sharing is unlike anything we’ve experienced and cross-communication is more important than ever. As we look to our future, what public health-inspired models and platforms are not only important for the greater good, but also critical to our businesses?

This discussion originally aired during the 7th Annual Emids Healthcare Summit in November 2020.

Speakers

Moderator: Kyle Armbrester, Signify Health, CEO
Heather Cox, Humana, Chief Digital Health and Analytics Officer
Bob Darin, CVS Health, Chief Data Officer; CVS Pharmacy, Chief Analytics Officer
Dr. Edmund Jackson, HCA, Chief Data Officer & Chief Data Scientist

About the Emids Healthcare Summit

The Emids Healthcare Summit is an intimate event featuring dialogue and relationship building with leaders from across healthcare tackling our industry’s biggest challenges head-on. This invitation-only summit brings together C-levels and leading executives from the healthcare industry to discuss the future of healthcare consumerism. Learn more here.

Brad Smith, Deputy Administrator and Director of The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), and Emad Rizk, MD, Chairman, President and CEO of Cotiviti, mic up to discuss the latest payment models making waves, why the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is likely to accelerate the move toward value-based care, and what Smith and CMMI are doing to shift value-based care from “side project” to the core way the country pays for healthcare.

This discussion originally aired during the 7th Annual Emids Healthcare Summit in November 2020.

Speakers

Brad Smith, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Director; White House Domestic Policy Council, Deputy Director Emad Rizk, MD, Cotiviti, Chairman, President & CEO

About the Emids Healthcare Summit

The Emids Healthcare Summit is an intimate event featuring dialogue and relationship building with leaders from across healthcare tackling our industry’s biggest challenges head-on. This invitation-only summit brings together C-levels and leading executives from the healthcare industry to discuss the future of healthcare consumerism. Learn more here.

The Interoperability rule potentially floods people with information about their health and, frankly, couldn’t have come at a better time. The pandemic may have just pushed us over the interoperability edge, so let’s decide what we really need and how to make it happen because the show of interoperability must go on.

This discussion originally aired during the 7th Annual Emids Healthcare Summit in November 2020.

Speakers

Moderator: Dr. Minal Patel, MD, MPH, Abacus Insights, Founder and CEO

• Erin Hoeflinger, Aetna, Senior Vice President
• Rajeev Ronanki, Anthem, SVP & Chief Digital Officer
• William Walders, Health First, Chief Information Officer

About the Emids Healthcare Summit

The Emids Healthcare Summit is an intimate event featuring dialogue and relationship building with leaders from across healthcare tackling our industry’s biggest challenges head-on. This invitation-only summit brings together C-levels and leading executives from the healthcare industry to discuss the future of healthcare consumerism. Learn more here.

CareTalk is a weekly podcast that provides an incisive, no B.S. view of the US healthcare system. Join host John Driscoll (CEO, CareCentrix) and this week’s special guest Alan Lotvin, MD (Executive Vice President and President of CVS Caremark, CVS Health) as they debate COVID-19 policies, drug prices, digital health, Medicare, racial disparities and more.

This discussion originally aired during the 7th Annual Emids Healthcare Summit in November 2020.

Speakers

John Driscoll, CareCentrix, CEO
Alan Lotvin, MD, CVS Health, EVP; CVS Caremark; President

About the Emids Healthcare Summit

The Emids Healthcare Summit is an intimate event featuring dialogue and relationship building with leaders from across healthcare tackling our industry’s biggest challenges head-on. This invitation-only summit brings together C-levels and leading executives from the healthcare industry to discuss the future of healthcare consumerism. Learn more here.