“Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.” – Bill Gates
Information technology for drug delivery telemanagement and the business of Pharma are also becoming inextricably interwoven, with medical technology, or medtech, taking the industry well beyond NDA approvals and filling scripts. As if drug development and delivery were not already sufficiently complicated, new combination products and telemanaged combination products make the processes even more so.
Within and around Pharma there are many stakeholders who can partner to make drug delivery telemanagement a success. Some of these may not have always been obvious. These stakeholders / potential partners have a wide range of interests and include a wide range of people and organizations. Many entities and individuals are stakeholders in multiple categories – sometimes they can even be perceived or actual adversaries.
Examples of positive partnerships and collaborations are on the rise. As Arundhati Parmar, senior editor at MD+DI, recently wrote: “You have Dexcom partnering with Google to develop next-gen continuous glucose monitoring systems; you have Medtronic working with IBM Watson Health to detect patterns in the millions of data points residing in insulin pumps....Propeller Health announced a R&D collaboration agreement to use its sensor technology in clinical trials sponsored by GSK….and then there’s Proteus Digital Health, which is going a step further in integrating a miniscule digital sensor into the manufacturing process of drugs.”
(For Ms Parmar’s full article, with links for more information, CLICK HERE)
Stakeholders in drug delivery telemanagement, which helps meet many stakeholder needs, such as providing more information, driving better outcomes and lowering overall healthcare costs, include:
- Pharma manufacturers, including CMOs and CROs
- device and component manufacturers
- patients as customers and managers of the use of pharma products
- practitioners and their employees (including all paid caregivers) and employers, including ACOs and others with alternative payment models, boutique practices, professional associations and home health agencies
- insurers or other payers and those who impact them (patients, voters, CMS, VA, employers, legislators, lobbyists)
- inventors, owners and managers of IP
- wholesale and retail “distributors” (classic distributors, PBMs, IDNs, NGOs; compounding and specialty pharmacies, chain and local pharmacies, pharmacists)
- “non-healthcare” service and component providers and distributors, device and software manufacturers, sensor and battery developers, PERS companies, consumer information/electronics companies, telecoms ; IT/security/engineering/human factors and behavioral consultants
- investors and the financial community
- the media
- Pharma, service and device competitors
- products liability, intellectual property and other lawyers (yours and theirs)
- regulators, quality systems engineers, testing labs and standards development organizations (foreign and domestic)
- IT, EHR, component and service suppliers, including consultants, associations and conference organizers focused on healthcare in general, such as AARP, or on treating patients with a specific disease; or on advancing drug delivery telemanagement, such as Parenteral Drug Association, American Telemedicine Association, HIMSS/mHIMSS, P4HA, and Drug Delivery Partnerships.
Napoleon Monroe is the inventor of five U.S. patents with granted medication telemanagement claims. When you attend the Drug Delivery Partnerships conference at PGA National Resort & Spa, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., you are invited to attend his presentation on January 20 at 12:15 p.m. Meetings can be arranged through Partnering One or by contacting him directly at nap.monroe@newdirectionsconsulting.net.
(This article was originally published on December 14, 2015)