Data and analytics are key components for the success of modern healthcare industry initiatives. Forecasting, modeling, and tracking are inherent in making decisions within all levels of healthcare infrastructure. In the pharmaceutical realm, simply having large amounts of data is not sufficient. It is imperative to organize the data appropriately. To that end, Synergistix has changed the center point of data tracking to benefit the life sciences industry. While the norm for many years has been to marry data to healthcare providers, the new method is to pair data with patients themselves. Doing this creates core changes in patient longitudinal data, TRx tracking and sales crediting — each benefiting from the simple, yet profound shift in focus.
Patient Longitudinal Data
The concept of patient longitudinal data centers around more than simply tracking metrics. It centralizes tracking and information around patients — which is a stark deviation from health care provider (HCP) tracking. Instead of looking at which prescriptions and therapies are prescribed most often by a provider, the patient longitudinal data approach looks at the entire patient experience.
This patient-centric approach allows a deep look at patient cancellation rates before they even see an HCP. It tracks utilization and persistency, discontinuation of medical therapies, and additional metrics that measure patient’s interactions and perspectives in their own health care.
By centering prescriptions around patients versus HCPs, a deeper insight into persistency of therapies can be seen, thereby making it possible to better predict product demand and future trends. Utilizing a robust life science focused CRM can be a valuable tool in helping analyze patient longitudinal data.
TRx Tracking
The concept of patient-centric tracking reimagines how TRx tracking is organized. The clearest example is the “one-and-done” patient. A one-and-done patient that fills a single prescription and never refills has a different impact on supply and demand trends, and it is important to be able to track and predict how many patients will fit this description.
One-and-done patients are not always the same. As-needed medications throw a wrench into the tracking. A 90-pill supply of as-needed medication can last anywhere from three to nine months for most patients. Analytics will not be able to identify one-and-done patients for such a prescription until at least nine months have passed. It is a vital component of TRx tracking and just one example of how a patient-centered analytical approach changes the entire perspective.
Sales Crediting
Sales crediting can be defined by the patient’s original prescription filling location. Patient longitudinal data predicts demand and informs sales and marketing strategies. Meanwhile, TRx tracking improves the forecasting produced by longitudinal data and identifies high volume prescribers, just like traditional HCP based data capture systems.
Models can be practically applied to sales crediting utilizing an effective life sciences CRM. Once again, it comes back to centering information on patients. In older methodologies, sales crediting was attached to HCPs. If a doctor ordered a prescription for a patient and then moved across the country, the new HCP would be credited for the previous patient going forward. Sales crediting teams had to manually update systems with changing HCPs, which was not efficient (e.g., managing the snow bird effect).
With newer methodologies, sales crediting is married to the patient’s initial prescription and initial HCP. If a patient changes doctors or moves, the sales credit will remain with the original sales representative unless the therapy is paused. For example, if a patient fails to refill a prescription for 12 consecutive months, the patient is re-assigned to a new sales representative. Here again, Synergistix tools can be used to effectively capture and analyze this information.
Takeaways
- Centering data on patients expands patient longitudinal data to find more insights.
- Total prescription tracking is more effective when defined by patient behavior.
- Sales crediting is kept with the original sales representative when tied to patients as opposed to HCPs.
If you want a CRM software platform with these insights on an easy dashboard, contact Synergistix today.
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