Healthcare systems around the world differ – public, private or a mix of both public and private (like in India). With all the variance in healthcare delivery models, the risks to healthcare professionals remain universal: needle injuries to litigations to episodes of threats/ violence
In our rapidly changing world, adaptability is essential. The strategies and decisions that yielded results yesterday might not be as effective today. By actively engaging with and updating our mental models, we position ourselves to adapt swiftly to evolving circumstances. This ensures our decisions remain timely and anchored in the present.
With the Second Wave hitting India, customers (patients and physicians) will continue to socially distance themselves in the foreseeable future. Pharma must use the field force for reach and relationship and digital for frequency and personalised content for better customer experience.
The pandemic has made doctors adopt Telehealth in a substantial way to shore up their revenues and this will continue to be one of their channels to engage patients. Telehealth along with EMR/EHR, digital therapeutics and wearables is enabling doctors to better care for their patients. There are many ways in which pharma can support the digital evolution of doctors.
Pharma companies that used large field forces for multiple divisions, selling the same me-too products to create a resounding Share-of-the-Voice in the market are beginning to Stare-at-the-Diminishing-Returns for investments on traditional sales and marketing strategies, if they can be called strategies at all in the first place.
Most pharma companies and professionals like Black & Yellow cabs, continue to hope against hope, that somehow they will be able to continue to hold on to their businesses and jobs till their shares are sold and EMIs are paid. After that, who cares?
The answer to pharma and healthcare’s challenges will need a combination of profound domain knowledge and experience combined with digital skills to engage Rx customers meaningfully.
In the lockdown, while I was on regular OPD and ICU rounds at a COVID hospital, I started noticing some mild symptoms of the Coronavirus infection. Being in the medical field and considering the severity of the pandemic situation then, I was very careful and cautious, and observed the symptoms closely. The symptoms persisted and I had to self-quarantine until the medical test reports came. It was important for me to isolate myself from the rest of the medical team and prevent the spread of the virus. Finally, the report came: I was COVID positive!
Stunned and slightly devastated; I broke the news to my family who could not believe it either. As a doctor, I could only treat, comfort and empathize with the COVID patients undergoing treatment; completely isolated from their loved ones. But now, I could actually feel the uncertainty of the situation. I was hospitalized and continued to experience body-ache during the admission. It was a stressful situation where I felt anxious and stressed about everything.
My CT scan reports showed mild lung infection on the day of admission but as the cytokines storm developed, my lungs were 76 % damaged in 3-5 days and I was short of breath and my oxygen level deteriorated to less than 80. I was shifted to an ICU with high-flow oxygen and was on a BiPap machine which I had purchased a few weeks ago for the hospital and never imagined that I would be using myself one day.
The pharma industry in India is entering a very interesting variant of the post-digital marketing era. The term “post-digital marketing” is used to depict a state where the lines between physical and digital blur considerably for a customer. However, in the context of pharma, this means a state where the industry has stopped questioning the need for digital and has begun to implement very interesting digital marketing initiatives.