Digital Disruption for Life Sciences: Rx for Transformation

Co-authored with Ibrahim Khalid

According to a recent BMI study, R&D investments in Pharmaceuticals, places Life Sciences as a leader on the list of global ‘outperforming industries’. This may not be a surprise considering the confluence of factors from the global aging populations to the shift to value and outcomes as well as a highly politicized healthcare marketplace. In addition, the consumerization of health care is driving growth in multi-channel marketing and more social media and digital engagements.

This new frontier is truly the ‘digital disruption’ in this industry that is shaking up even the stodgiest companies. We are seeing renewed drive for innovation and investments in conversations with leading biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical device companies. Meanwhile, according to Gartner Group, today, “leading life science companies are increasing focus by establishing organizational entities that focus on digital innovation.” What is the prescription for tackling this new frontier? Rapid digital transformation enabled by Internet of Everything (IoE).

At the recent Generis BioManufacturing Summit, stakeholders across Life Sciences functional areas were seeking a greater technological edge to drive a competitive advantage. Randal Kenworthy presented on the topic of the Internet of Everything (IoE) and its impact on the Life Sciences industry, including use cases across the value chain from R&D to Connected Care. There was resounding agreement as we discussed the business drivers, which cluster around some common themes including:

How to accelerate research, lowering risks and improving health outcomes through precision medicine

How to better leverage information from new connected data sources with analytics.

The best practices around creating smart connected factories by enabling manufacturers to increase compliance, reduce cost and increase operation excellence with IoE

Steps to create a connected supply chain to increase visibility, traceability and compliance

In discussing case studies on improving patient health through Connected Care, we were struck by how exciting developments in virtual collaboration, data virtualization, medical grade networks and more can enable breakthrough innovations. A great example of that IoE innovation came from Jeremy Frank of Proteus Digital Health. Dr. Frank did a live demo of the digitization of health care by swallowing their sensor enabled pill that began displaying some of his health metrics live (over the Cisco network).

Take a look at how this Connected Life Sciences At-a-Glance to learn how Cisco is helping our customers adopt digital strategies for accelerating R&D, improving manufacturing and supply chain operations and enhancing sales and marketing.

How do you see Digital Transformation evolving in Life Sciences? Leave us a comment below. For more information, visit our Life Sciences web page at www.cisco.com/go/lifesciences.