Digital Solution Trends Heading into 2025

PC: Pertaining to the implementation of digital solutions in the marketplace, what kinds of successes have you seen?

Mullooly: We've seen some great success with implementing these solutions in the marketplace. One example I can share is a manufacturer who decided up front to build a really robust roadmap. They decided to map out exactly what they were looking to achieve and how they were going to achieve it. They allowed for enough time, and they made sure that they had all the right financial investments in place. They had the right players and stakeholders involved, and that was really crucial as well. They brought industry experts to the table, and they made sure they had the right teams of operational expertise, IT expertise, business process expertise. They were able to bring everyone together, and they focused first on building their platform and their core infrastructure. They were really thoughtful around how they did that, and then from there, they were able to evolve their roadmap, and they've continued to build off of that solid foundation that they built, and they've continued to enhance and evolve that along the way. Ultimately, they have a package where it’s a solid foundation, they're able to meet patients and customers where they are, and their technology is really supporting the patient journey. So that's been really successful.

Another thing that I've seen several manufacturers do that I am in favor of—and I think works really well—is the pilot approach. Traditionally, you see a manufacturer go through an RFP process, select a vendor, and then implement their solutions into their patient support program, but they're fully invested at that point. I think what works better are some of these manufacturers who have engaged in a pilot first, so they still go through that RFP process, but when they select their vendor, they develop a short-term pilot so that they can fully vet that solution on a smaller scale and in a narrower focus, and that enables them to gather some data to determine: are the outputs of what they expected? Are they getting accuracy results that they were told they were going to get? Are those solutions being utilized in the way they thought they were going to be utilized?

I've seen some manufacturers come out of that pilot with much lower accuracy rates than they were expecting. I've also seen some come out of the pilot phase with the same or higher accuracy results that they were expecting, but ultimately, they have the data that then they can decide, is this investment truly worth it, and are we going to get what we were expecting to get without having to fully invest? So that's been a really smart approach as well.

PC: Heading into 2025, what trends in the space are you envisioning?

Mullooly: Digital solutions aren't going anywhere. I think you're going to hear about more manufacturers who are interested in implementing these solutions or expanding on what they already have in place today. I think we'll see more service providers pop up, new service providers we hadn't heard about before, and maybe new service offerings we hadn't heard of before. I just think there's going to continue to be an expansion in this space. Perhaps we'll hear of more well-rounded packages of solutions being offered, but the other thing I think we're going to hear a lot more about—and I'm excited to see where this conversation goes—is around AI. It’s the buzzword of late, so I think we're going to hear a lot more about AI and how that is integrated in some of these solutions. I'm curious to see where that conversation goes.