NEXT Pharma Summit Highlights May 2024
20th May 2024
Varn Health’s CEO Tom Vaughton spent an inspiring two days exploring what the future holds for digital at the NEXT Pharma Summitย in Dubrovnik.ย This conference is dedicated to people passionate about Pharma, Digital, Commercial, Medical Affairs, Tech and more. Talks and events were focused on healthcare and asking a simple question: Where to NEXT?
We asked Tom to share some of his five highlights from the conference >>
1. In ๐ข๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ด๐น๐ผ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ด๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐น ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ Rob Verheul and Jamie McNally talked through a real-life case study, of 40 new websites in 25 markets in 6 months, (2 – 4 weeks per website), at 90% better value than traditional website projects. This talk demonstrated how Astellas and Graphite Digital created a consistent and optimised customer experience, as well as and importantly, an efficient and cost-effective multi-website project. In summary it, was a combination of good comms and design. Do it well once and then run at speed.
2. There was an interesting workshop on ๐ฐ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ณ๐๐น ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ป๐ ๐ท๐ผ๐๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐. Dan Buckland and Amish Patel ran a live and real-time customer journey planning session all in 20 mins. It was an interesting chance to share opinions and best practices and focus on the importance of having a constant workflow with a customer-first model. You need to attract, engage and then delight.
3. In ๐ง๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐ ๐ถ๐ป๐๐ผ ๐๐๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐น๐ฑ Alyssa Fenoglio explained very clearly the importance of using good data properly and transforming AI Insights into good business decisions. Alyssa explained it is a case of garbage in, means you’ll get garbage out. So, you need to start with good data and not just throw low-quality information at AI, because you’re scared of being left behind, and then be disappointed by the results.
4. Marco Andre talked about ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ โ ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ, ๐๐โ๐ ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ด๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ. He showed how to work with AI in pharma and manage FOBO, the ‘fear of becoming absolute’. As Marco said, if you keep up AI is here to elevate you, not to replace you. He said that it is no longer about knowing the answers, pre-AI and search, but knowing the questions to ask. Marco also shared some great real-time examples of the uses of AI for HCPs to support their work.
5 Finally, there was an interesting Oxford-style debate with the age-old question in the Pharma industry about ๐ช๐ต๐ผ ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฒ๐น๐ฑ ๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ด๐? ๐ ๐ฒ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฎ๐น? Daniel Tertel, John Wahba and Steve Royle played their parts in an extremely well thought out and managed debate with the outcome and vote evenly balanced. As Daniel said afterwards, โthe answer in real life is seamless collaboration toward a common goalโ
If you’re interested in more from the NEXT Pharma Summit the ‘next’ one is happening in Vienna on October 22 & 23, 2024 and is about “Unlocking Pharma’s Authentic voice through CX, Engagement and Applied AI.”
