19 October 2021
Adapting to disruption
While COVID-19 has put a spotlight on the life sciences and healthcare industries, these sectors have shown flexibility and agility to develop, manufacture and deliver solutions on a scale that we have never seen before.
The collaborative efforts of researchers, scientists, government bodies and health authorities has led to significant breakthroughs in history; from fast-track approval process for COVID-19 studies to rapid implementation of the latest medical technologies, this shows the innovation that the sector can achieve within an ‘impossible timeline’ in the face of a health emergency.
The question now is whether we can adopt these accelerated and extraordinary ways of working from the COVID-19 experience so that they become the ‘new standards’ of best practices. By doing so, this will help unlock capabilities to address health issues at the population level, share knowledge of treatments for chronic, serious debilitating or life-threatening diseases for which there are currently no or limited treatment options, and strengthen the reputation of the life sciences sector post-pandemic. Most importantly, this also poses an opportunity for the UK to be the go-to country for technological innovation and expert leadership in global healthcare.
Building on the progress we have made
In response to the pandemic, the life sciences industry has accelerated developments and adopted collaborative ways of working – sharing of information, expertise, and resources including people and facilities (even among competitors) – to speed up the availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
The crisis has highlighted the need to speed up innovation - when we discover a new understanding or deepen our knowledge, we can simply share and make this information available and equitable to all healthcare professionals across borders. For patients that have an unmet medical need or an illness that is being ineffectively treated, all that matters to them is now.
If we can maintain the speed and build on the scale of work that we have achieved during the COVID-19 crisis, then we can hope to see transformations that can successfully navigate through collaborations and remove the distractions that can often get in the way and slow down our progress.
This is particularly evident in our experiences of how medical knowledge is exchanged between the life sciences industries and healthcare providers (healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations). It is essential that we remove the challenges and complexities that get in the way, stop or slow down collaboration and sharing of knowledge.
Each collaboration is complex; however, we recognise that as soon as two or more motivated parties agree to collaborate, what happens next during the initial stages of the relationship sets the tone on how quickly all parties get to the collaboration phase (or whether they make it at all).
To embrace the momentum and engage at rapid rates of progress, we believe that the simplest and greatest impact that pharmaceutical companies can have on this problem right now is to remove unnecessary hurdles and pain points experienced in administration, particularly through the initial contracting stage.
This will enable faster exchange of medical knowledge, remove the uncertainty in chasing payments (if required) and meet transparency expectations and requirements, without any distraction.
A typical practise for pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals (HCPs) to collaborate is through speaker and consultancy engagements, whereby companies contract HCPs through service agreements to share their medical knowledge, research, clinical practice and understanding to their colleagues across healthcare systems.
The contracting process is often incredibly messy and this lengthy compliance process is one of the main pain points of frustration for HCPs when engaging with pharmaceutical companies.
Contracts are often created from word templates and handed back and forth among different departments for review and adjustment, causing confusion and consuming valuable time. When these cross-functional checks are not put in place there is often a risk of wrong contracts or incorrect terms being issued, which then leads to exhaustive processes of drafting a new contract, waiting for approval and signature. The slow turnarounds, excessive approval processes and needless complex workflows can ultimately lead to a fundamental breakdown in confidence from HCPs that the pharmaceutical company that they are seeking to collaborate with is really a worthy and cutting-edge partner for them.
Now that the pandemic has demonstrated how much can be achieved when we work together in ways and at a speed that we normally wouldn’t, slow contracting and complex compliance processes are no longer acceptable excuses for missed engagement opportunities with HCPs.
Business teams should no longer have to spend hours, days or even months of their valued expertise creating and approving contracts, instead, they should focus their time and budget on strategic initiatives that will bring value and growth to the organisation and ultimately better patient outcomes.
Through the considerable challenges a new sense of collaboration has been born, it is time to embrace the fast-tracked timescales, reassess the contracting processes and provide a better experience for HCPs whilst finding smart and better ways to strengthen compliance through technological validations and controls.
Driving technological innovation to transform compliance processes
PAYCE is the first integrated contract and payment management platform designed specifically to simplify workflow processes and automate compliance, helping pharmaceutical companies to build long-term relationships with HCPs and healthcare organisations (HCOs).
PAYCE is easy to use, with little to no training required from the onset of implementation. It is a seamless, cloud-based solution designed with guided workflows to streamline compliance processes with increased efficiency and transparency.
Controlled and instinctive contracting steps, that simply creates correctly prepared service contracts using your company’s templates
Users (including HCPs) are able to securely access all documentation and contracts in a single place
Receive reminder emails/notifications when contracts have been signed and approved – keeping track of any changes that have been made
Access to a full audit trail to help legal teams meet and demonstrate compliance requirements
Improve risk mitigation and management
Use legally binding e-signatures requiring a user’s identity to be authenticated for each signature
Automate processing of routine contracts (low-complexity and low-value contracts) allowing the legal team to focus more on complex and challenging work
To book a demo and find out more how PAYCE can help you transform collaboration with healthcare professionals, visit www.payceportal.com.