Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) bring revolution to every sector and the Pharma industry is no exception. IoT is reinventing the old model of manufacturing and distribution of drugs with the use of smart devices and machine-to-machine communication. This technology is not only revolutionizing the patient experience, but is also playing a vital role in other areas such as supply chain, R&D, and clinical development.
The Pharma Industry is not just limited to delivering medications, storage, and distribution. It now includes – tracking biological usage, providing answers to prescribed treatments, educating patients and ensuring appropriate medication usage, promoting adherence to the medication, and assigning dedicated Nurse Ambassadors to help get patients started and stay on track with prescribed treatment plans, etc.
Pharma industries require collaborations between medication, data of customer health and activity, as well as data from various medical or non-medical smart devices for:
- personalized services
- remote patient monitoring
- recommending the next best course of action in case of emergencies
- sending precise instructions for medication dosage and patient care
- promoting adherence to the specific line of medication
- personalized medication plans and tracking, and more
In this blog, we will talk about challenges, how IoT is making a significant change in the Pharma industry by associating with Adobe Experience Platform, and what is the best way of implementing and executing IoT-enabled solutions.
Why Advanced Technologies Should Be Implemented in Pharma?
Key Disruptions in Pharma That Require Involvement of New Technologies:
- The pharma industry is not only limited to drug manufacturing and distribution. Smart devices and wearables involved collaborate with tech products and help HCPs for easy diagnosis.
- Digital interaction with patients has become the new norm. With real-time interaction and virtual detailing, the pharma industry is making life easier by providing people with medical help instantly.
- Pharma has become more patient-centric. Now patients can do research, have a doctor discussion guide before consulting, and know more information about the drugs they consume.
- Third-party cookie sunset, complex regulations for marketing technology stacks, and compliance like privacy, and auditing are some more reasons for disruptions.
Key Challenges Marketers Face Providing Consumer’s Expected Experience:
Data Silos
With various sources of data such as prescription drug websites, disease awareness sites, mobile apps, and machine-generated IoT data, deriving real-time customer profiles is the holy grail for marketers. The real challenges are to keep data centralized with identities and governance.
Complex Patient Data Processes
Offline management and ingestion of patient data is another challenge for marketers that disturb real-time decisions. They need a high-tech marketing stack for optimizing the data ingestion.
Privacy and Regulatory Compliance
Marketers deal with sensitive patient data and due to that, regulations and compliance become vital. They require tech-stack compliance with strict industry regulations to address evolving issues in handling sensitive data.
How IoT Is Bridging the Gap in Customer’s Experience?
Customer data is highly fragmented due to touchpoints like web and mobile not being connected. Additionally, new data sources like machine generated data are not exploited for personalizing the experience. Data driven experiences and next best actions are missing, which provides a disjointed customer journey and customer experience.
Let’s Take a Look into Customer Experience without IoT Integration:
- No immediate medication alert from the mobile app when there are abnormal readings detected on the patient’s smart BP monitoring device
- Lack of personalized medication recommendation or reminder tracking
- No scope for immediate intervention from nurse ambassadors in case of emergency
What Happens When IoT Meets Adobe Technology
Together, IoT and Adobe technology can help craft a meaningful experience by infusing data from smart devices into the Adobe Experience Platform. Data from sites, apps, and other sources can be combined with machine-generated data using AEP. It can help deliver an “Internet of Experiences” which is real-time and far superior to the disjointed experiences customers previously had. The solution can also include in-house smart devices, blood glucose monitors, and smart medication dispensers.
Nextrow’s IoT-Enabled Solution for Pharma Using AEP
We have built an extensive solution, which is an innovative integration of customer digital data and IoT device data powered by the Adobe Experience Platform. It includes integrations across Experience Cloud Products below:
High-Level Architecture of IoT Integration Solution
The behavioral data collected from websites and mobile apps are respective to Adobe’s data collection SDK’s. Connectors will be used to collect patient data that can be either a batch or real-time ingestion. Though there are several easy ways to get the data into AEP, this is the best way to use a cloud-based connector (in case you are using AWS or Google Cloud).
The necessary segments will be created in AEP using Segmentation Service and the segments will be activated to Adobe Target, and Call center (profile API) using Adobe Journey Optimizer + AEP RT-CDP Destinations. The identity service will stitch all the data into profiles using the common identified such as email ID. RT-CDP can power website experiences through Adobe Target and mobile push apps using Adobe Journey Optimizer. Call center can access the profiles in real-time using the RT-CDP Profile APIs.
Benefits of IoT Integrated Solution
Better Customer Acquisition: – Significant increase in the number of customers due to the enhanced features available in the application due to smart device integration.
More Engagement:- Easily available recommended content and instruction sets will improve customer engagement
Better Conversion Rate:- Readily available in-app support system and instruction steps will improve medicine and medical device purchases
Improved Customer Satisfaction and Retention:- Improved customer satisfaction through personalized services will build a loyal customer base
New Face of Pharma With IoT-Enabled AEP Solution
The combination of IoT and Adobe Experience Platform can transform the life sciences industry. It can empower the pharma industry to offer valuable propositions, improve patient and HCP engagement, create a faster time to market, as well as improve productivity, cost optimization, and better compliance adherence.
If you want to know more about this solution, connect to an expert at sales@nextrow.com.
