How an Effective Data Strategy can Transform Business Decisions and Improve Outcomes

The life sciences industry has access to vast repositories of global patient data that can richly enhance how a brand can go to market in an intelligent and efficient manner. These real-world data (RWD) sets can be mined for detailed insights about the patient journey, treatment trends, greater understanding as to how healthcare professionals (HCPs) make decisions about patient care, the effects of payers and insurance companies, and myriad other factors.

When companies have an effective approach for their data and the technology to support it, they can continuously optimize their marketing strategy, thereby identifying and responding to trends sooner. That will lead to improved patient outcomes while also leading to less waste, better ROI, and improved profitability.

General insights, limited value

However, most life sciences companies fall short of achieving this value proposition because they don’t have the right data, technology, or expertise to optimize their RWD strategy.

Over the last several years, the industry has seen big advances in the use of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning (AI/ML) to mine the literally billions of healthcare data points each year in search of answers that can lead to a true competitive advantage. In parallel, many life sciences companies are also getting better at capturing their own data and investing in external real-world data sets to support decision-making across the business.

But too often they take a one-size-fits-all approach to analytics, and the result is underwhelming. The data they use is trapped in siloes, thus limiting its value. As a result, they may be able generate big picture trends that are broadly informative, but they lack specificity and/or use poor visualization thereby trapping data from transforming into the insights that can be used to create strategic advantages.

Everyone needs a Navigator

It doesn’t have to be this way. Companies can achieve the desired level of granularity if they adopt more sophisticated solutions, like IQVIA’s Omnichannel Navigator, which was built by industry experts to provide timely, best-in-class data sets and visualizations that provide insight to campaign performance and allow organizations to make key business decisions with confidence.

Navigator is a novel media optimization platform that allows life sciences teams to make informed decisions about their media spend. This cutting-edge platform leverages machine learning algorithms to review selected global data sets and provide relevant information to address the interests of all stakeholders.

It is designed to help analyze performance at the varying levels of granularity individual stakeholders may need. With weekly updates, datasets from Navigator offer near real-time access to audience quality, patient activation/retention as well as incremental new patient starts for your campaigns. Whether a marketer is looking for a high-level channel performance overview or to dive deep into weekly performance for campaign optimization, Navigator helps to unlock previously siloed data into one full comprehensive platform.

Personalization is important as well. For example, senior leadership at a life sciences company may want monthly reports tracking how marketing campaigns are assisting overall financial performance, how the product strategy is working, and where they need to alter said strategy to maximize results. Navigator can present these high-level trends with clear visuals of top-level metrics, conveying these messages quickly and succinctly. Within that same company, there may be brand teams and their supporting agencies that are eager to see whether publishers or tactics are reaching their patient population. Within a few short weeks of a campaign launch, Navigator will give the brand access to relevant patient longitudinal data relating back to their target population reached by media. Soon thereafter, the brand also will know whether these tactics are driving incremental new patients- with both sets of metrics update on a weekly basis in the platform. It reliably provides data at the levels of statistical significance that the industry has come to expect from IQVIA analyses. This data can both help to inform decisions for marketing strategies moving forward, and offer insights more quickly than when relying solely on data available in the life sciences space.

Take your data strategy to the next level

In a world where continuous optimization has become the new standard for managing media investment, pharma brands — and the agencies and service providers that support them — need access to harmonious, reliable datasets. When life sciences companies have access to deep granularity around commercial performance, they can link KPIs back to audience quality, new patient starts, cost per qualified reach, and cost per patient activation/retention. It makes it easier to move dollars in the right direction, and course, correct as soon as data indicates desired results aren’t occurring.

If your data platforms can’t deliver this level of specificity at statistical significance on a weekly basis, this deficiency could be translating into missed opportunities for cost savings and financial growth. IQVIA Omnichannel Navigator brings a new, unprecedented level of access to data needed by every stakeholder to make better investment decisions that will maximize your ROI, while also supporting your ability to reach relevant patients and physicians in an increasingly cost efficient manner.

By Andrew Burkus, Principal, Omnichannel Marketing, IQVIA