Are We There Yet? Digital Transformation to Have Biggest Effect on Pharma Industry Over Next Five Years

Reuters Events recently conducted 350+ hours of research calls across the pharma industry and discovered four key themes were most frequently mentioned:

1. Digital transformation
2. Health equity
3. New products = new models
4. Purpose-driven leadership

Reuters then conducted a poll on LinkedIn asking What theme being addressed at Pharma 2022 will have the biggest effect on the industry over the next five years?

The results were:

1. Digital transformation 57%
2. Health equity 19%
3. New products = new models 16%
4. Purpose-driven leadership 8%

Reuters commented “A huge 57% said that digital transformation would have the biggest effect, with health equity in second at 19%. But progress is slowing, risking a return to the old model plagued by persistent health disparities.”

It is interesting to find that, after the last decade or so that we’ve had, pharma still considers itself undergoing digital transformation and that it will remain a major priority for years to come. Every time this topic arises, I can’t help but feel like a child in the backseat of a car saying “Are we there yet?”.

Of course, transformation will always be constant – an ongoing challenge as time goes on, audiences change, and channels evolve. Perhaps it is time to be discussing omnichannel transformation instead?

We are now seeing many omnichannel marketing roles created in pharma every month which is reassuring to know that we are perhaps on the tail-end of this so-called digital transformation period.

This shift from cross-channel and multichannel marketing towards omnichannel in pharma is a welcome one, and the core reason for launching OmniPress. Our aim is to not only facilitate digital transformation, but enable healthcare marketers to bring omnichannel customer experiences to healthcare professionals and patients through an integrated website platform. HealthPress websites link with CRMs, email service providers (ESPs), learning management systems (LMS), and more to deliver a dynamic user experience that drives better engagement and more goal conversions.

It will be interesting to see the extent omnichannel is discussed at Pharma 2022 (formerly eyeforpharma Barcelona) in Nice this year, and how much these four themes change for next year. What are your predictions for 2023? We are putting our money on omnichannel being in the #1 spot.