Is pharma getting the most out of mHealth?

Two distinct reports are shedding light on the struggles that pharmaceutical companies face in working with healthcare providers – and showing how mHealth might make their jobs easier.

A joint study of some 3,000 physicians conducted by Quantia and Capgemini Consulting finds that more of them – 57 percent at last count, rising to 70 percent for newer physicians (those attaining degrees within the last 10 years) – are now members of health systems, which place strict controls on prescribing procedures and limit access to pharma sales representatives. As a result, the study found, physicians are turning to digital health tools and online programs for drug education and prescribing guidance.

The study, “Working the System: 4 Trends Driving New Opportunities for Engaging Physicians in Organized Provider Systems,” suggests that pharma needs to adopt mHealth tools to work with healthcare providers.

“As provider consolidation and restrictive policies reduce access for traditional selling efforts, opportunities exist for pharmaceutical companies to help address the needs of these organized providers through innovative initiatives and programs,” Doug Moore, Capgemini Consulting's organized provider solutions leader, said in a media release. “Executive decision makers at health systems can benefit from an array of digital tools offered by pharmaceutical companies, which have the potential to help drive consistency of care and make health systems more efficient."

According to the study, due to those restrictions, affiliated physicians (76 percent overall, 83 percent new) are seeking pharma information through digital channels. That might mean social media, apps or other digital tools that enable doctors to receive targeted information at the point of care.

“The survey findings indicate that physicians overwhelmingly believe that pharmaceutical companies willing to adapt their physician engagement strategies have the potential to add real value to their organized networks,” added Dan Malloy, Quantia's executive vice president, in the release. “Introducing physician engagement strategies such as credible online communities and digital content sharing gives pharmaceutical firms the opportunity to promote the latest, critical drug information to these organized physicians while aligning with the performance objectives of the health systems in which they work – a true push/pull approach that will drive success for all constituents.”

But is pharma fully invested in the mHealth movement? Another study, released by Berlin-based Research2Guidance, says leading pharma companies might be developing their fair share of apps, but they aren't making much of an impact.

The report, "Pharma App Market Benchmarking 2014," finds that leading pharma companies have an average of 65 apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play, but those have only generated 6.6 million downloads since 2008 and have less than 1 million active users.

The study, analyzing app activities of the top 11 pharma companies, lists three reasons for failed mHealth penetration:

1. The apps aren't available to enough subscribers. Almost half of pharma's app publishing entities focus only on local markets, the study says, meaning the apps are available in only three or fewer countries.
2. The apps are built around core pharma products rather than market demand. According to the study, the apps are too focused on specific diseases or conditions, and thus are of value only to a limited market. Ideally, pharma should be marketing apps to a larger audience, focusing on such broad categories as weight loss, health tracking, fitness and diabetes management.
3. The apps aren't fully functional. According to the study, pharma companies aren't cross-referencing between apps or using common style guides for their app portfolios, making each app an individual product and hurting their chances to improve app visibility and boost corporate identity in the app market.

The study also questions pharma's overall mHealth strategies. For example, Novartis publishes apps under 17 different entities, making it difficult to establish a global mHealth identity and align categories. The report questions whether pharma should just be publishing apps, or whether the industry should target partnerships with providers and other entities, data aggregation and app incubation.

The report groups pharma companies into three categories:

1. Niche. This includes companies like Roche and Bristol-Myers-Squibb, which use apps to support core products and have a higher share of apps targeted at professionals, rather than private user groups like women, health enthusiasts or diabetics. This explains why their apps don't have a broad reach.
2. First success. This includes companies like Merck, who have seen huge success with a couple of apps in a large portfolio (93 percent of Merck's app downloads come from three apps). Without those hugely successful apps targeted at a large mass market of private users, however, the company's success rate would be dismal.
3. Still trying. This includes companies like Novartis and Bayer Healthcare, who have active app portfolios but haven't seen the gains posted by First Success companies (for example, Novartis sees only 22 percent of downloads from its top 3 apps).