Short Takes

Video Interviews With Industry Leaders

The Digital Health Coalition partners with a wide array of pharmaceutical industry leaders and key stakeholders to facilitate and disseminate insights on a range of topics related to digital pharmaceutical marketing innovation. 

Recent Short Takes

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Sara Farag, MD, FACOG

Medical Advisory Board
Sermo
View LinkedIn

The conversation between Mark Bard and Dr. Farag of the Sermo Medical Advisory Board highlights the evolving dynamics of rep interactions, transitioning from in-person to digital during COVID and now incorporating both methods post-COVID.

Dr. Farag emphasizes the value of rep interactions for staying updated on new medications/tools, establishing relationships, and accessing resources like medical liaisons and patient support tools.

Dr. Farag shares her perspective on how digital communication complements traditional interactions, enhancing efficiency by allowing her to access information and benefiting from tailored approaches to pharma-led physician education and support.

Jeff Davis

General Manager, Biopharma
ixlayer
View LinkedIn

In this interview between Mark Bard, Co-Founder of The DHC Group and Jeff Davis, General Manager of Biopharma at ixlayer, the discussion centers around rethinking diagnostic testing and how it can improve the healthcare triple aim of lowering costs, improving outcomes, and enhancing patient experience.

Jeff explains how building a platform to enable remote diagnostic testing through partnerships with labs optimizes the patient experience – this allows tests to be developed and taken at home, with results connected to care providers in the health ecosystem. The two also discussed how testing innovations can help patients with information earlier in their care journey, and how remote testing could improve access issues by reaching underserved populations and addressing social determinants of health.

Finally, Mark and Jeff covered opportunities for data insights and how biopharma companies could tailor the testing experience for their patients while maintaining strong privacy standards.

Ryan Billings

Head of Commercial Innovation &
US Established Brands Business Unit
Organon  View LinkedIn

Mark Bard sat down with Ryan Billings, head of Commercial Innovation at Organon. The two started by discussing the unique aspects of Billings’ role at Organon – a [global health company] that focuses on women’s health, an underserved area in the pharmaceutical industry.

Billings talks about the challenges of partnering with innovative companies in the pharmaceutical industry but believes pharma can partner with rapidly growing innovative companies by focusing on their value add in clinical innovation and products, rather than trying to build everything themselves. In terms of both customer experience innovation and a marketing efficiency, Billings mentions the importance of AI, which he refers to as “amplified intelligence.”

Finally, Billings offers advice to those looking to stay ahead in terms of innovation and knowledge in the industry.

Dr. Jenny Yu, FACS

Chief Health Officer
Healthline Media
View LinkedIn

In this Short Take, Mark Bard sits with Dr. Jenny Yu of Healthline Media, a former surgeon now involved in health technology and education.

The two discuss her career path and motivations in the healthcare industry, and the importance of patient education and the role of digital content in improving patient outcomes. Dr. Yu also highlights the need for trust in health content suggesting that discernment and validation methods should be used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of information. 

The potential of generative AI models is mentioned as a means to deliver personalized and empathetic healthcare content. 

Dr. Yu also explains the value of education in driving behavior change and improving patient self-efficacy and discusses the potential of brand.com websites in providing transparency and information to patients, collaborating with clinicians, and putting patients at the center of healthcare education.

Michael Sivak

Senior Director, Customer Experience
& Enterprise Digital Capabilities
AstraZeneca
View LinkedIn

In this Short Take, Mark Bard interviews Michael Sivak, Senior Director, Consumer Experience &  Enterprise Digital Capabilities at AstraZeneca, about the impact of AI and Generative AI on the health and pharma industry. They discuss how AI has been around “for a while” but has just recently become more mainstream.

Sivak emphasizes the importance of having a specific problem to solve when implementing Generative AI into a brand plan, such as personalization, adapting content for different audiences, and addressing misinformation. The conversation concludes with expressed excitement about the possibilities and potential of AI in the future.

Meghan Sarli

Principal, Marketing Strategy & Client Insights PatientPoint
View LinkedIn

In this interview with Meghan Sarli, of PatientPoint, Mark Bard discusses her experiences and lessons learned with a project to apply e-commerce strategies in the vaccine space – and implications for user experience overall. Meghan also discusses the differences, and similarities, based on time spent within pharma as well as data firms such as IQVIA.

Following a discussion of omnichannel insights, the conversation turns to innovation at the point of care and closes out with thoughts on the impact of AI on data, sales, and marketing in pharma.

Dr. Ashish Rana

Medical Advisory Board, Sermo
View LinkedIn

In this interview with Dr. Ashish Rana, Medical Advisory Board, Sermo, Mark Bard (DHC Group) discusses how physicians are accessing clinical content, peer opinions, and innovative treatment information at the point of care.

Dr. Rana also discusses what content and resources add value for them in their day-to-day workflow and activities.

Finally, he discusses how pharma companies should think about their investments in digital, social, and customer experience resources.

Brandi Ascione

EVP, Managing Director, Underscore Marketing View LinkedIn
A conversation between Mark Bard, DHC Group, and Brandi Ascione, Underscore, where they discuss various topics related to digital transformation, data-driven marketing, and digital health trends. Key points from the conversation include the impact of external factors like digital health on the pharmaceutical marketing industry, the right mix between personal and non-personal promotion channels, and the desire of patients to be empowered in managing their health. The conversation closes with a discussion of the power of data-driven strategies and the potential for innovative solutions to drive next gen marketing and aligning strategies with business challenges.

Jay Carter

EVP Business Development – Juice Pharma View LinkedIn

Mark Bard, DHC Group, interviews Jay Carter from JUICE discussing various topics related to marketing, career transitions, and industry trends. Additional key points include, strategic thinking, agency business models in the future, pharma marketing and agency diversity, social media omnichannel strategy evolution, and data-driven marketing.

Milet Koo

Team Lead, Social Media, Genentech – View LinkedIn
In this conversation between Mark Bard and Milet Koo, they discuss the importance of social media in the pharmaceutical industry. Milet emphasizes that social media is at a pivotal point where technology advancements, along with the demand for personalization and human interaction, are driving trends. They highlight the need for pharmaceutical brands to engage in social media, understand their customers’ conversations, and develop tailored strategies for both consumers and healthcare professionals. Milet also addresses the challenges of balancing innovation with compliance, the evolving role of healthcare professionals in social media, and the complexity of measuring ROI in a multi-faceted digital landscape.

Jim DeLash

Multi-Channel Marketing Director, GSK – View LinkedIn
In this brief discussion with Jim DeLash, Multi-Channel Marketing Director at GSK, Mark Bard, with DHC Group, discusses a recent article written by Jim about the importance of the strategic brief for marketing. Topics include best practices for creating and writing the brief, analytics, and how to produce and refine a framework for testing. The conversation also touches on the potential of generative AI for the brief process.

Richard Schwartz

Life Sciences Industry Practice Lead – View LinkedIn

Mark Bard, with DHC Group, recently spoke with Rich Schwartz, with customer and experience management firm Qualtrics. Rich provides an update on the gap between HCP expectations for content and services from pharma, and how pharma perceives that gap in customer unmet needs. The conversation also touched on innovations in the patient experience space, as well as the importance of including employees in the overall experience management strategy. 

Faye McCray

Vice President & Head of Health Equity and Social Impact, Healthline MediaView LinkedIn

This discussion between Mark Bard, DHC Group, and Faye McCray, Healthline Media, covers a wide range of topics from the role of the pharmaceutical industry to promote disease education, health equity and social impact, and how pharmaceutical companies can successfully partner with patient advocacy groups. Faye also discusses her early legal career and how that motivated her subsequent career choices to better understand, protect, and fight for underserved populations.

Fred Bennett

Chief Digital Officer, BGB GroupView LinkedIn

Mark Bard, with DHC Group, speaks with Fred Bennett, Chief Digital Officer BGB Group, about digital transformation, HCP channel preferences, balancing the link between medical and commercial, creating an integrated view of HCP customers, and how we measure success of programs within medical and commercial. For additional information about BGB Group, where science and creativity meet, please visit bgbgroup.com

Tim Pantello

CEO, Relevate Health View LinkedIn

Mark Bard, with DHC Group, speaks with Tim Pantello, CEO Relevate Health. Not many agency executives and industry thought have the level of experience and insights that Tim has in the industry. In addition to leading various agencies, he also spent time on the consulting side working with top pharma companies working through digital transformation efforts. This conversation reviews insights from his early days in pharma (sales) as well as how the agency model has evolved (or not) in recent decades. Finally, Tim dives into how we must think about data driven marketing, engagement and customer experience efforts with a HCP audience – today and in the future.

Louis Naimoli

Director, Programmatic Sales and Business Development, Haylo View LinkedIn

Mark Bard, with DHC Group, is joined by Louis Naimoli, Programmatic, Haymarket Media, to discuss the state of programmatic advertising including topics such as budgets, education, agency partnerships and what’s ahead for 2023. This discussion also touches on innovations related to medical events and targeting health professional with a deep dive into what’s happening with OOH (out of home) advertising to reach targets on a geographic and location basis. Stay tuned for future updates from DHC Group on programmatic in 2023.  

Erica Taylor

VP, Chief Marketing Officer, Genentech – View LinkedIn

Join Mark Bard, with DHC Group, and Erica Taylor, CMO Genentech, for a discussion on measuring effectiveness of marketing, authentic communication and exchanges with customers, and building successful teams within the organization. Additional topics of discussion include how we can (or should) think about compassion for customers when creating marketing and brands, the difference between engagement and experience, as well as how pharma company leaders can realistically and practically promote change with regard to access to care within underserved patient populations. A brilliant marketing leader and passionate about positive change, Erica sheds light on topics all marketers must understand today.

Jen Alper

Senior Director, US Women’s Health Portfolio Team Lead at Pfizer – View LinkedIn

Mark Bard hosts a Fireside Chat with Jen Alper on her experience and lessons learned in the industry. Having spent almost 15 years with Pfizer – and before that almost 5 years with Lilly – Jen understands sales and marketing and has been at the forefront during a time of massive change in the industry with regard to marketing, digital, and sales engagement. 

Meghan Rivera

US Managing Director at Organon – View LinkedIn

While many pharma execs gain experience within different parts of commercial operations inside pharma during their career, some have the opportunity and desire to work across the broader health and pharma ecosystem. Meghan Rivera is certainly one of those execs with experience in pharma, agencies, technology and startups in the digital health space. In this wide ranging interview Meghan discusses what she has learned along the way, offering insights to other execs mapping out their own career, and what she sees ahead for women’s health.

Marianne Swift

Director of Client Partnerships at Spotify – View LinkedIn

Marianne Swift, Director of Client Partnerships at Spotify, joins Mark Bard with DHC Group to evaluate the role of digital audio for today’s healthcare marketer. Together they address the most common questions around audio marketing today, including integration into the existing campaign, the role and sophistication of data, and, of course, brand safety.  Marianne also shares her thoughts on “what’s next” for pharma in audio.
Filmed June 2022

William Febbo

CEO at OptimizeRx – View LinkedIn

In this discussion with Will Febbo, CEO of OptimizeRx, Mark Bard with DHC Group reviews the experiences Will had as an entrepreneur and his early insights that motivated him to explore how we can use technology to improve medicine. Building on his experience with data driven decision making platforms in the market research space, the conversation also touches on how technology can link the pharma industry and medical professionals using digital platforms and the EMR to guide medical care decisions.

Nik Kolatkar

Vice President, US Medical Affairs at Genentech – View LinkedIn

In this brief interview with Nik Kolatkar with Genentech, Mark Bard discusses innovation in clinical trials, the rapid uptake of digital health tools within patient populations and the impact on post-marketing strategy. As a leader with insights across the spectrum of pharmaceutical research and commercialization, Nik discusses and shares insights on the topics of interest to marketers thinking about what’s ahead for customer-centric marketing.

Kristi Veitch

Executive Vice President, Human Resources at Intouch Group – View LinkedIn

Mark Bard talks with Kristi Veitch, EVP of HR at Intouch Group, about the trends around return to work and restarting a cohesive team and office culture. Kristi shares insights on how senior leadership and department leads be effective while being completely remote and how to foster community with a hybrid team.

Peter Kirk

Founder at SERMO – View LinkedIn

Mark Bard talks with Peter Kirk, founder of Sermo, about his recent experiences as a founder, patient, and thought leader. The conversation starts with a review of his recent experience with cancer and his decision to run the NYC Marathon shortly after treatment. Peter also provides this thoughts on how physicians are using social media, sharing content, and the opportunity for enhanced engagement as physician utilization continues to increase over time.

Peter Friedman

Chairman and CEO at LiveWorld – View LinkedIn

This two part conversation with Peter Friedman, founder of LiveWorld, starts with a review of his experience at Atari and then Apple – in the early days of networking and community. Peter discusses the initial drivers of community and what kept users coming back – for content and services.

Following a review of his time with Apple, the conversation moves to his motivation to started LiveWorld and what he sees happening in the near future after a rapid rush to social for physicians on a global basis over the past two years. Looking forward, he discusses how brands and companies can better understand and engage users (and customers) in social.

Web Sun

President & Co-Founder at Komodo Health – View LinkedIn

The explosion of data in health has created opportunities and challenges for companies seeking to better understand how to align their clinical trials, product launch, and ongoing marketing and sales strategies based on real world data. Komodo has pulled data together to help health care companies and life sciences firms understand how to better target, understand, and optimize patient outcomes. This conversation with Web Sun covers recent data trends, how pharma companies can overcome the data to insight challenge, and what’s ahead for real world evidence.  

Heidi Anderson Hupe

SVP, ASO Strategy at Teladoc – View LinkedIn

You can’t talk about the role of digital over the past two years without a conversation about connected care, remote monitoring, and tele-health. When you think of tele-health … you think of Teladoc. Not only have they continued to reinvent the connected care model, they have expanded their reach with acquisitions such as Livongo (care management and monitoring). Learn about where the market is today for patients, physicians, payers, pharma and employers — and where it’s headed in the near future with industry expert Heidi Anderson Hupe.

Derek Choy

Co-Founder & COO at Aktana – View LinkedIn
Using data to direct the pharma field force is nothing new. However, combining cutting edge AI, deep data, and strategic integration within the overall field strategy is yielding significant results within pharma companies focused on going beyond the tech-enabled force to fuel the next generation of the data driven sales concierge model. Hear where Derek Choy thinks the market is headed in the coming years and where data will drive even more value for pharma sales and marketing.

Richard Schwartz

Life Sciences and Medical Device Industry Cx Practice Lead at Medallia – View LinkedIn

Customer feedback? Customer service? Customer experience? Pharma companies often confuse the concept of feedback and service with the forward-thinking concept of true customer experience – where leading brands use data, insights, and real time platforms to not only solve problems but predict them before they even happen. Join Rich as he discusses the future of Cx in life sciences and what it will take for brands to make the leap to true Cx.

Spencer Curtis

Head of Digital Strategy, Otsuka Pharmaceutical – View LinkedIn

A conversation with Spencer Curtis about identifying future talent, mentoring future leaders, and preparing the next generation for innovation. The discussion also touches on the role of big tech in digital health, drivers of digital therapeutics, reaching the audiences in most need of digital health solutions, and how pharma companies can partner with innovative companies and startups. 

Monique Levy

Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, Woebot Health  – View LinkedIN

Monique and Mark discuss digital market trends and the current landscape for digital therapeutics. Topics of discussion also include the role of mobile devices in patient health as well as opportunities with patient level data. 

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