I recently had the opportunity to sit on a panel with executives from KPMG and Microsoft at the KPMG Innovation Day event in New Jersey. There we discussed the risks and challenges of the current life sciences market and how best to combat these issues going forward. We engaged in a discussion about the pace of innovation and how life sciences companies struggle or succeed in capturing value from innovation, especially in the areas of new technology and information systems.
One key takeaway I gathered from this discussion was the need to engage and team up with technology companies, as well as the increasingly important role of Clinical Research Organizations (CROs) in reducing risk to bring drugs to market.
The ability to reduce risk in the early stages of research and development (R&D) is crucial to a successful and efficient drug development process. CROs and other life sciences organizations must focus on new, digital approaches to R&D that streamline business processes and mitigate risk.
A recent Gartner report, surveying CIOs in life science organizations, found that digitalization not only helps to mitigate risk but also enables innovation in research. This is why CIOs are investing in digital technology in 2018 and beyond.
When asked which technology will drive differentiation...24 % of life science CIOs chose digitalization/digital marketing compared to 14 % of their cross-industry peers.
Gartner identifies a top five set of technologies that play an essential role in the future of the life sciences industry, especially for R&D:
- BI/Analytics: Analytics allows organizations to make more informed decisions based off patient data, providing more beneficial drugs to the patient and more competitive success for the company.
- Digitalization: Digitalization of processes improves efficiency and minimizes human error, which could significantly reduce cycle and development times.
- Internet of Things: IoT streamlines inefficient processes throughout drug development and can potentially help bring costs down across the system.
- Artificial Intelligence: AI helps streamline the drug development process by leveraging consumer data to better understand customer segments and determine the best course of action.
- Cloud services/solutions: Cloud offers assurance that needed resources will always be available for quick implementation. This capability not only lends to maintaining regulatory compliance, but also contributes to improving speed to market.
Want to see how Appian is using these technologies to contribute to a more successful digital transformation? Visit our Life Sciences resource center.
Evi Cohen
Vice President of Global Life Sciences
