If you asked health care and life sciences leaders, they would resoundingly say that the convergence of the industries is top of mind. Lita Sands, Managing Director at Deloitte, confirmed that this is a pivotal movement that can drive significant improvements in patient care and operational efficiencies.
On a recent episode of The Health Pulse Podcast, Sand joined host Alex Maiersperger to discuss why life sciences organizations must strengthen their relationships with health care. Sands explained why AI, generative AI (GenAI), person-in-the-loop and cloud adoption are essential to the future. She also shared lessons learned to help other leaders at the intersection of industry and technology.
While this is a must-see interview, I want to share a few highlights.
Reshaping separate but related industries
The convergence of life sciences and health care is changing the industry at large, and it’s driven by a myriad of challenges and opportunities. There are two considerations:
- From a collaboration perspective, convergence is the outcome of a desire for seamless partnerships to enhance patient outcomes.
- From a data perspective, it answers decades of data-sharing obstacles, translating to information hurdles and even care challenges impacting patients, providers and payers. Data is one of the most significant drivers of convergence.
Breaking down barriers
The traditional boundaries between health care and life sciences are dissolving as advanced technologies, predictive analytics and real-world evidence (RWE) become vital tools in identifying and supporting patients through their treatment journeys. When we add in technological advancements, artificial intelligence and GenAI, the opportunity to not just break down barriers but truly reinvent processes is widened immeasurably.
Life sciences companies have increasingly recognized the importance of RWE in supplementing clinical trial data, providing a more accurate picture of how treatments perform in real-world settings.
At the same time, health care organizations can use RWE to improve staffing challenges, patient care and treatment pathways, and their ability to understand complex challenges more quickly.
Sands discusses many examples throughout her conversation, but the key point is clear: convergence drives more opportunities for better, more patient-centric outcomes. But to achieve the environment that convergence offers, a posture of collaboration must be front and center.
Convergence drives collaboration
Sands says the ultimate opportunity that convergence provides is increased collaboration.
Collaborative partnerships between life sciences and health care organizations are essential for creating a more integrated approach. Data sharing can lead to more informed decision-making, improved patient outcomes, and enhanced efficiency across both sectors.
But this shift isn’t as easy as flipping a switch. Each industry will be required to provide its strengths to lead in certain areas.
For instance, Sands highlights that life sciences organizations will increasingly play a proactive role in patient services, especially in high-need areas like oncology, where care teams are often stretched thin. By leveraging their expertise and resources, life sciences companies can support health care providers in offering comprehensive patient guidance, education and support, ensuring patients receive the care they need.
At the same time, health care organizations will need to play a more significant role in commercial operations, sharing patient feedback between providers and drug developers to manage adverse outcomes better and understand post-market activities more quickly.
The future of two industries: One direct objective
In the full conversation, Sands provides several real-world examples of where convergence is working and why it’s crucial. Health care and life sciences professions: Listen closely as she hints at your work's future and your organization's future.
Two powerful takeaways:
- With the convergence of industries, we’ll see a better, more connected, more patient-centric care system from drug discovery to patient treatment.
- Without convergence, we’ll continue to operate in a siloed system to the detriment of patient care. Technology has advanced, and it is a key enabler of this shift.
What’s yet to be known is whether humans will lean in and truly move towards a better, tech-enabled future.
