29 Nov Digital Health About Connection, Collaboration and Integration

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Mr. David Moore MBA
Senior Vice President, Commercial
Novo Nordisk

Mr. David Moore presented the keynote presentation “Breaking Through Barriers in Innovation” at the 4th Annual HITLAB Innovators Summit, NYC November 28, 2017. 

MedicalResearch.com: How did you become interested in incorporating technological advances into the sales and marketing end of pharmaceutical delivery?

Response: Part of our message today is that we understand that there is an opportunity to improve outcomes if we have a better focus on collaboration and integration through engagement with the patient rather than through medications alone. We continue to innovate in diabetes pharmaceutical care but are also focusing more on meeting the patient in their journey through everyday life.

The opportunity to connect, collaborate and integrate is what digital health is all about.

As manufacturers, we are still early in the integration process. When we think about technological changes from the patient’s perspective, health care has become much different. The patient no longer just goes to the doctor’s office for a conversation or opinion, with the doctor keeping all the notes. Now the patient has access to a broad range of medical information and usually their own medical records. There is an element of needing things to be user-friendly. As with any consumer product or service with choices, if the choice isn’t user-friendly, the consumer won’t use it. We are looking for ways to make the delivery of pharmacologic products user-friendly to both the patient and provider.

MedicalResearch.com: What are some of the barriers to innovation you face in your industry? 

Response: One of the things that comes to mind as developers on the manufacturing side, is a shift from thinking about patients in the literal sense, (in a clinical trial, and ultimately as a user of that medication), to looking through a different lens, with patients as consumers living with chronic disease. This perspective highlights that the individual patient has choices and has to manage their disease on a daily basis. This long-term view gives us a better opportunity for collaboration and connection. How can we be involved in making the patient’s life simpler and, in the long term, healthier?

Many patients have to manage multiple diseases at once, often with their own complications. Some medications, including one made by Novo Nordisk, aim to address these overlapping complications, i.e. a diabetes drug that reduces heart disease risk.

MedicalResearch.com: What are some of the solutions you have developed to overcome these barriers?

Cornerstones4Care® diabetes managment app

Response: One example is the Cornerstones4Care^® Powered by Glooko^® App which marries Novo Nordisk’s extensive knowledge of diabetes and personalized patient support with Glooko’s digital platform and data analytics expertise.

The App is comprehensive tool that helps patients track meals, activity, medicine and blood sugar and is intended to help people learn how to better manage diabetes through their mobile devices.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: For us the most important message is that we are open to partnership and collaboration. We recognize that we have a strong heritage in developing treatments for patients, but engaging and connecting with consumers is also an area we must continue to focus. We are open to learning from and working with multiple collaborators who have the interest and experience in integrative care. That is why we get excited about meetings like this HITLAB Summit.

We aim to find out what is possible as we focus on thinking about the patient as a long-term consumer of our health care products and meeting the patient where they are in their journey.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Note: Content is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.

Last Updated on November 29, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD