Designs on the Future of Health: The ambitions of Google, Apple, et al

The digital health revolution: tech giants and their impact on pharma

Drug discovery, quicker clinical trial recruitment, real word data generation, better patient adherence and improved diagnostics/monitoring. Dramatic change is underway as companies such as Google, Apple and Dell expand use of their digital health platforms. What are the organisational/cultural challenges industry must overcome and are tech giants friends or foes?

Designs on the future of Healthcare: the ambitions of Google, Apple et al provides a detailed 360-degree scan of current and upcoming digital technologies and technology players that will radically alter the way pharma conducts its business.

“Technology is forcing us to go beyond how we traditionally do things in terms of healthcare delivery, but also in terms of life sciences development. We are going much faster through the enabling technologies.”

Michael Greenberg, Sanofi Pasteur

Answering key questions:

Why health? Digital health attractedUS$5.8 billion of new investment in 2015 – almost as much as biotech. Why is digital health technology so attractive to investors and tech companies?
Trends: What are the most significant trends affecting healthcare and life sciences?
Who are the Players? Which technology companies are creating innovative digital health solutions and where are the best opportunities for Pharma?
Clinical Trials: How might digital technology be applied to refine and speed up clinical trial recruitment and outcomes assessment?
Patients as Consumers: Consumer technology has opened the door for better engagement with patients. What technologies are being applied now and what applications can be expected?
Apple: Why is Apple’s Research Kit considered ground breaking and how is it being applied?
Cultural challenge: The increased pace of digital advances is impacting traditional pharma. Will tech giants force the industry to change?
Interoperability: Data is locked up in isolated systems. What are the prospects for integrating bioinformatics and clinical informatics data for better clinical and research insights?
Partnering up: What are the essential ingredients for successfully partnering with a digital health technology company?
The Next Five Years: How will digital health technology change healthcare delivery over the next five years and what are the implications for pharma, providers, patients, and payers?

With this report you will be able to:

Understand the digital technologies that are already making an impact and understand which new technologies will bring greater benefits to health providers and industry
Review technology companies such as Apple, Google, IBM, Dell and SAP that are leading the way in digital health and assess their services and ambitions.
Learn from the pharma companies such as Roche, Merck, J&J, Sanofi, and Leo that are actively applying digital health technologies in their business.
Appreciate how digital technology can beneficially modify the way clinical trials are designed, run and followed up.
Assess the need for pharma to fundamentally rethink its practice to fully benefit from digital technology.
Establish the skills needed for successful digital health initiatives.

Key Topics explored

Digital technology holds the prospect of radically reforming Pharma’s operation, but the industry must fundamentally re think its business practice.
Putting together a partnership with a technology giant like Alphabet (Google) - an insider's view
Keys to successful collaboration with technology companies, healthcare CIOs, and patients.
Working models that drive innovation and technological change for pharma and technology companies.
The US healthcare system has created a number of unconnected Electronic Patient Record formats. Can artificial intelligence systems be applied to unlock clinical and research insights for better patient outcomes and research?
What are the challenges of extracting meaningful insights from both structured and unstructured data?
Precision or personalised medicine: what’s the difference?
The empowered tech-savvy patient wants deep, on demand information to help them better manage their health; multichannel communications allows Pharma to engage in a more targeted way.
Digital technology will allow Pharma to benefit from deeper, more granular insights based on genomics to target therapies in unique, and unusual ways.
The application of digital technology in advanced nations is growing rapidly, but what is the situation and challenge in developing it for large-population markets such as China?
Specialist skills in informatics and analytics are essential – Pharma needs to address this talent gap.

Expert Contributors

The report is informed through in-depth interviews with payers, advisors and clinicians. To ensure open and critical responses some contributors identities have been kept anonymous:

Michael Greenberg, MD, MPH, Associate Vice President, Innovation and Patient Centricity, Sanofi Pasteur, FR
Stephane Rouault, Innovation Leader, Global Product Development Medical Affairs, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., CH
Paul Jacobs, Head of Digital Strategy, LEO Innovation Lab, DK, UK, FR, CA
Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chair, Department of Medicine, Physician-in-Chief, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, US (Also, part of the American Heart Association Partnership with Google.)
Nicholas Genes, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, US (Also, part of the team for Asthma Health App with Apple ResearchKit.)
Paul Wicks, Vice President of Innovation, PatientsLikeMe, UK
David Chou, Digital Health IT Advisor, dchougroup, US
Dominik Bertram, Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences, SAP Innovation Centre Network, DE
Chris Moose, Partner, IBM Business Consulting Services, US
Nick van Terheyden, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Dell, US
Kors van Wyngaarden, MSc, MD, MBA, Medical Officer Digital Healthcare, Philips, NL
Sarah Jane Militello, Director of Operations, UCSF, Samsung Digital Health Innovation Lab, US
Greg Reh, Global and US Life Sciences Sector Leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP, US
Brett Davis, General Manager (GM) for ConvergeHEALTH by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP, US
Christopher Zant, Principal, Life Sciences Technology Lead for Digital, Deloitte Consulting LLP, US
Dan Garrett, Partner and Leader PwC, Healthcare IT Practice, US
Digital Leader, Top 20 Pharma

Content Highlights

Trends in the digital health transformation
- Investment trends
  - Digital health investments
  - Why are so many technology giants expanding in health and life sciences?
  - Digital innovation labs
  - Technology accelerators
- Consumer healthcare trends
  - Non-traditional and on-demand care
  - mHealth, bigger, but not yet better
  - Personalised search powered by deep learning
- Healthcare technology trends
  - Health IT interoperability
  - FHIR
  - How are advanced technologies transforming healthcare and life sciences?
  - What are the most significant trends driving technological transformation in health and life sciences?
- Trends in innovation models
  - What innovation model is key to your process and philosophy?
  - Design thinking
Technology giants in health and life sciences
- Which tech giants are showing the most promise in health and life sciences?
- Google, now Alphabet
  - Google Ventures
    - Flatiron Health
    - Roche leads investment in Flatiron Health
  - DeepMind Health
Apple
- Apple HealthKit API
- Apple ResearchKit
- Case study: The Mount Sinai ResearchKit Asthma Study
  - Integration with Electronic Health Records
  - Advice to pharmaceutical companies on ResearchKit
- What are the lessons learned from Apple ResearchKit?
- Apple CareKit
- Apple Watch
Pharma in the digital transformation
- How are digital technologies changing customers’ experiences with the pharma industry?
- What is pharma’s biggest weakness in digital health?
- How can pharma accelerate digital change?
Technology deals
- Do you see pharma companies looking to form more technology partnerships in 2016?
- Is your pharma company looking to form more technology partnerships in 2016?
- Tech and pharma deals
  - Alphabet/Google
    - With Sanofi
    - With Biogen
    - With AbbVie
    - With Novartis
  - IBM
    - With Novo Nordisk
- Tech and other stakeholder deals
  - Case study: Evolution of American Heart Association partnership with Verily
  - Is your technology company actively soliciting partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry?
  - What other opportunities does pharma have for innovation with external partners?
Keys to successful partnerships for pharma
- Leadership
  - What leadership qualities do pharma leaders need for successful technology collaborations?
- Technology companies as partners
  - What do pharma leaders need to know about working with technology companies?
- Healthcare CIOs as partners
- Patients as partners
  - What are the keys to successful collaboration with patients?
The next five years
- Which areas of technology are the biggest opportunities for pharma?
  - Big data and predictive analytics
  - Personalised/Precision Medicine
  - Drug discovery and development
  - Genomics and the Electronic Health Record
  - Cognitive computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning
  - VR/AR for education and training
  - Healthcare delivery
- Implications for pharma
  - To what extent will pharma be an essential partner in the digital health transformation?
  - How and where must the pharma industry raise its level of commitment to digital health?
  - How can leaders plan for skills gaps? What are the key areas?
  - Where is the future value for pharma in partnering with tech companies in the digital health transformation?
Will tech giants eclipse pharma in innovation?

Need more information? Contact a consultant for an executive summary and sample pages from the report.