Pharma companies use Digital Health in many different ways, e.g., for cost saving in R&D processes or for an increase of medication adherence. In our projects we have experienced a pattern of typical hurdles for real economic success:
Missing integration of digital functionality within standard healthcare processes of medical institutions
Lack of reimbursement forecasting before the development of a Digital Health functionality
Mismatch between the core drug portfolio and chosen Digital Health functionalities
Lack of monetisation concepts based on medical impact quantification
Underperforming pharma sales teams due to difficulties identifying and activating the optimal national routes for monetisation (neither for stand-alone nor for digital and drug combined services)
Unawareness of nation-specific scientific learning curves of Digital Health, which must be considered in trial and monetisation negotiations
Lack of insights into the highly relevant national Digital Health community of researchers, which is not identical with the standard opinion leaders known by pharma
Underestimation of regulatory hurdles (like medical software product classes) and selection of unsuitable regulatory pathways
Lack of Digital Health specific economically relevant parameters in trial design
No consistent investment focus to drive Digital Health implementation and revenue generation
All these, among other factors, significantly slow down the adaption of Digital Health in pharma.