Kim Hale, VP, business development medical device at Within3, explains the importance of virtual engagement for life science businesses going forward.
Throughout the last year, the medical device industry, like every other industry, was forced to adapt. Severe disruption, changing priorities and newly emerging challenges all impacted the way the industry functioned, and with a permanently changed landscape, these challenges promise to impact organisations well into 2021 and beyond.
But through these problems also comes innovation, adaption and new solutions. For the life science industry, digital trends that were already in motion have been accelerated to the forefront. In particular, virtual engagement strategies have become a near necessity for growth.
With one eye on future success, the medtech industry will be re-evaluating its strategy and those who do so first will gain the advantage. In this new virtual engagement strategy, companies will need to take a new approach to training, patient engagement and clinical trials, in order to fulfil their end of the contract with the public.
How did medtech companies innovate in 2020?
In 2020, the engagement landscape changed forever. Companies had to balance a growing focus on patient engagement with restrictions on physical contact, varied time availability and travel restrictions.
Even with some of these challenges subsiding, their impact remains. Some forecasters believe that nearly 40% of business travel may never return, and in 2020 many HCP’s found they preferred some meetings and events, such as medical congresses, to be virtual.
On top of this, many teams experienced shortened timelines, productivity gains and improved results with virtual interaction. These teams will be more selective with their face-to-face meetings in future, and many will question the need for a commute when virtual engagement can deliver improved results.
Looking to the future of patient communication
Because of the innovations of the last year, patients are more accustomed to remote device programming and monitoring. Regulatory changes that were agreed as a response to the crisis have also facilitated this further. As a result, we expect remote solutions to become a permanent feature of life science communications.
Organisations that embrace this virtual engagement throughout their product life cycle gain a remarkable competitive advantage against those who are slow to uptake. Those organisations that embrace this have seen the advantages first-hand. Patient and KOL relationships are most efficiently built when done through a virtual platform with built-in features catered to produce high quality insights.
Upskilling a remote workforce with virtual learning
Medical device groups were better positioned than most to navigate the change to remote working. Their existing familiarity with virtual technology for training and internal meetings reduced the knowledge gap many had to bridge. Looking forward, many will continue to embrace these capabilities even further to drive the demand for virtual interaction and knowledge sharing.
HCPs will still need virtual training going forward, both to retain the best talent and also to equip teams for the ever-changing landscape. To engage with this successfully, teams should standardise and cater their virtual training plans to maximise efficiency. Online learning initiatives will become a strategic pillar for all med tech organisations to weave into their fabric, as opposed to an ad hoc activity when an acute need becomes visible.
How has virtual engagement transformed clinical trials?
With over 1,000 clinical trials being disrupted by late 2020 due to a heavy reliance on physical data collection, travel and physical presence, virtual engagement has emerged as the only solution.
Virtual engagement has already streamlined parts of the trial process. It provides opportunities to monitor patients post-procedure without a physical presence, it allows increased device monitoring and it facilitates the ability for patients to check-in digitally.
To match this existing digital transformation, companies are considering whether other trial aspects can follow suit or be improved, including site selection, recruitment and patient activation.
On top of this, virtual engagement can streamline data dissemination, facilitate online communities and help design standardised protocol. These factors can unite global teams to maintain a high degree of integrity around trial data, whilst streamlining processes for efficiency.
What does this look like in practice?
While the progression to virtual engagement makes sense, it can be tricky to undo 20-plus+ years of in-office experience, even after the year we’ve had. However, companies that do embrace it now will have a measurable advantage over those who don’t.
To use an example from our own work at Within3, during the pandemic, we worked with a commercial team within a leading medical device company. They needed to engage a group of 19 global physicians to gather insight on monitoring patients. The team opted for a multi-day, over-time meeting on Within3’s online engagement platform. With the over-time meeting, participants log in at their convenience rather than a scheduled gathering, and designing how they would interact was critical for this meeting.
Our team reduced potential communications roadblocks by refining the question and feedback format with a view to allow the advisors to focus. On top of this, we enabled in-platform translation so physicians could seamlessly communicate in their preferred language, removing the language barrier usually present.
Through this streamlining process, the team was able to maintain a high level of engagement with the advisors and obtain more holistic feedback.
The result was a huge success. Following this, the company plans to continue with virtual advisory boards to engage more people and increase the quality of interactions between HCPs and life science companies.
Throughout the last year, the life science industry has earned its reputation as one that consistently pushes boundaries to improve health outcomes for patients. Through virtual engagement, we’re able to gather deeper insight at more efficient rates, allowing companies to fulfil their contract with both patients and the public.
