Connecting Pharma to Patients with Digital Patient Engagement Strategies in Global, Emerging, and Developed Markets

Industries Profiled:
Health Care; Pharmaceutical; Diagnostic; Biotech; Manufacturing; Consumer Products; Medical Device; Chemical; Biopharmaceutical; Research; Clinical Research; Laboratories


Companies Profiled:
Abbott; AbbVie; Alexion Pharmaceuticals; Allergan; Astellas; AstraZeneca; Bayer; B. Braun; Cadila Pharmaceuticals; Cordis; Ferring Pharmaceuticals; Fidia; Genentech; Horizon Pharma; Incyte; Ipsen; Janssen; LEO Pharma; Medtronic; Meyer; MSD; Novartis; Novo Nordisk; Parexel; Pfizer; Pharmacyclics; Reata Pharmaceuticals; Roche; Sanofi; Sunovion; Synexus; Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; UCB Pharma; Vifor Pharma

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 54 industry professionals involved in digital patient engagement programs at 34 leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies through a benchmarking survey instrument. Report insights are presented into three segments: Global Market Segment (19 respondents), Developed Market Segment (20 respondents) and Emerging Market Segment (15 respondents).

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Drivers of program creation
• Frequency of outreach to patients
• Spending on digital patient engagement tools utilized for patient outreach
• Measuring the effectiveness of programs

• Emerging markets spend a smaller portion of their patient engagement budget (15%) on digital activities compared to Global (33%) and Developed markets (41%).

• Highly mature companies have different priorities regarding activities they should be implementing. Highly mature companies rate market research, co-pay assistance, and social influencers as “Very Effective” for increasing engagement more often than their less mature counterparts.

I	Executive Summary	pp. 4-6
	Summary of findings	p. 5
	Detailed summary	p. 6
II	Participant Profile	pp. 7-15
	Segmentation	p. 8
	Response geography and perspectives	pp. 9-15
III	Key Findings	pp. 16-31
	Operational systems wheel	p. 17
	Global vs. Developed vs. Emerging markets	pp. 18-31
IV	BRICS Insights	pp. 32-35
V	Technology and Tools for Successful Engagement Programs	pp. 36-43
	Effective tools	pp. 37-41
	Access to health records	pp. 42-43
VI	Staffing for Patient Engagement	pp. 44-49
VII	Investment in Digital Engagement	pp. 50-57
	Spending proportions	pp. 51-55
	Groups investing in digital patient engagement	pp. 56-57
VIII	Structure of Patient Engagement Groups	pp. 58-63
	Outreach to HCPs vs. patients	pp. 59-60
	Reporting structure	pp. 61-63
IX	Processes and Vendors Used	pp. 64-69
	Working with legal and external groups	pp. 65-66
	Top vendor insights	pp. 67-69
X	Service Levels: Engagement Scope and Depth Delivered	pp. 70-75
XI	Aligning Marketing with the Patient Journey	pp. 76-78
XII	Performance Metrics	pp. 79-87
XIII	Lessons Learned from Qualitative Insights	pp. 88-91
XIV	Demographic Profiles	pp. 92-96
XV	About Best Practices, LLC	p. 97

• Twelve dimensions through which to understand operational systems

• Factors influencing the level of staffing within Digital Patient Engagement groups - Emerging markets vs. Developed markets
• Percentage of external engagement budget for patient engagement and HCP outreach devoted to digital initiatives in global, emerging and developed markets
• Percentage of external engagement budget for patient engagement and HCP outreach to be devoted to digital initiatives in global, emerging and developed markets in the next three years
• Percentage of budget devoted to digital patient engagement activities and programs
• Involvement level of targeted patients in the digital patient engagement program
• Top performing patient-focused marketing activities in global, emerging and developed markets
• Outreach frequency to patients and HCPs in global, emerging and developed markets through external engagement programs
• Patient health record access in global, emerging and developed markets
• Digital tactics or technologies employed for patient engagement across global, emerging and developed markets
• Countries within developed and emerging markets where benchmark partners have had the greatest impact with their digital patient engagement programs
• Effectiveness of patient engagement activities across global, emerging and developed markets
• Level of satisfaction among benchmark partners with the overall awareness achieved through HCP and patient outreach programs in each of the markets
• Effectiveness of patient feedback tools across all markets
• Effective metrics for evaluating the success of digital patient engagement programs

• Digital patient engagement tactics and tools employed in Brazil, Russia and India
• Digital patient engagement tactics and tools employed in China and South Africa
• Percentage of budget devoted to digital HCP outreach and digital patient engagement in each of the BRICS countries

• Digital tactics or technologies employed in digital patient engagement programs across all markets
• Effectiveness of patient market research and digital assistants through tech partnerships in digital patient engagement programs
• Digital components utilized as part of the digital patient engagement program across all countries
• Effectiveness of patient engagement activities across all countries
• Effective patient feedback tools for segmenting patients to receive engagement messages aligned with different phases of their journey
• Patient engagement group’s involvement with patient health records in global, emerging and developed markets
• Patient engagement group’s involvement with patient health records in global, emerging and developed markets in the next three years

• Factors influencing the level of staffing within digital patient engagement groups in global, emerging and developed markets
• FTEs allocated to digital patient engagement programs in each reporting market
• Level of outsourcing within the digital patient engagement group across all markets
• Digital patient engagement staffing drivers across the benchmark class

• Proportion of external engagement budget devoted to patient engagement across all markets and proportion of budget to be allotted in the next three years
• Proportion of external engagement budget devoted to digital patient engagement across all markets and proportion of budget to be allotted in the next three years
• Proportion of external engagement budget devoted to HCP outreach across all markets and proportion of budget to be allotted in the next three years
• Proportion of external engagement budget devoted to digital HCP outreach across all markets and proportion of budget to be allotted in the next three years
• Percentage of total patient marketing spend allocated to selected programs and activities
• Budget source for digital patient engagement activities across global, emerging and developed markets
• Budget source for digital patient engagement activities across the benchmark class

• Frequency of outreach to HCPs and patients through external engagement programs – Total benchmark class
• Frequency of outreach to HCPs and patients through external engagement programs in emerging markets
• Reporting structure for digital patient engagement programs across the benchmark class
• Reporting structure for digital patient engagement programs across emerging and developed markets
• Effective knowledge transfer channels for digital patient engagement programs

• Involvement level of the legal and compliance departments in listed patient engagement activities
• Importance of listed patient advocacy group activities and support services when building and maintaining digital patient engagement programs
• Top vendors for developing and implementing digital patient engagement programs
• Valuable lessons learnt while working with a vendor in developing or implementing a digital patient engagement program

• Satisfaction level among participants with the overall awareness achieved through their patient and HCP outreach program
• Importance of patient advocacy group activities and support services when building and maintaining digital patient engagement programs
• Activities and programs included in the total current digital patient engagement spend – Total benchmark class
• Activities and programs included in the total current digital patient engagement spend – Global, emerging and developed markets
• Benchmark partners’ perception regarding their external engagement efforts

• Digital patient engagement investment trends – Total benchmark class
• Digital patient engagement investment trends – Global, emerging and developed markets

• Metrics used to track the success of patient-focused digital marketing activities – Global, emerging and developed markets
• Satisfaction levels with patient and HCP outreach awareness efforts
• Satisfaction levels with the engagement driven through patient engagement programs
  Success of digital patient-focused marketing activities and programs
• Factors influencing a company’s digital patient engagement program development strategy
• Effectiveness of patient engagement activities
• Effectiveness of patient feedback tools

• Countries / regions having the greatest impact with digital patient engagement programs
• Most critical lessons learned regarding digital patient engagement programs in emerging markets