Postscripts Rx
Conversations Beyond the Prescription. Where pharma, HCPs, life science and digital health solutions meets patients—after the script is written. Conversations on digital health, engagement, and real-world impacts that are re-writing the future of patient engagement.
Postscripts Rx
Puppy Parks and AI Agents: September Pharma Events
Navigating the evolving landscape of pharmaceutical patient support requires staying ahead of emerging technologies and industry trends. In this illuminating conversation with Cathy Zaremba from Medisafe's Marketing team, we dive into key takeaways from two major industry conferences—Hubs West and Fierce Pharma Week—where changing regulations, digital innovation, and artificial intelligence dominated discussions.
The pharmaceutical conference landscape itself is transforming. Fierce Pharma Week's ambitious combination of four previously separate events created a high-energy environment but revealed growing pains as exhibitors faced logistical challenges with sessions and exhibition halls on separate floors. This raises interesting questions about whether bigger always means better when it comes to industry gatherings.
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond buzzword status to practical implementation discussions. Pharma companies are now asking critical questions about using AI safely within a regulated environment. We explore how Medisafe is answering these questions through patient-facing applications like VIA, an AI assistant that helps patients with medication adherence, education, platform onboarding, and benefits verification—all while maintaining strict regulatory compliance.
The transformation of patient support services through digital tools represents a paradigm shift similar to online banking's evolution. Secure document exchange capabilities now allow patients to upload verification documents directly through support platforms rather than relying on faxes. These innovations streamline processes during high-volume periods like "blizzard season" when many patients need to reaffirm their eligibility for assistance programs.
Ready to discover how technology is transforming patient support while maintaining regulatory compliance? Listen now to gain valuable insights that will help you navigate the future of pharmaceutical patient engagement.
PostScripts Rx is not intended to constitute medical advice, nor is it intended to influence prescribing decisions or any other medical or clinical decision-making. All medical and clinical judgment and decision-making, prescribing decisions, and all related considerations remain exclusively the responsibility of providers and patients.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to Postscripts, the podcast exploring what happens after that first prescription. We cover the latest innovations in patient access, support, digital tools, hcp engagement and pharma marketing that we all hope drive better outcomes for patients. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute any medical advice, nor should it be used to influence any clinical decision-making. Patients should always consult their healthcare professionals. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Brian Carr. I'm from the Medisave team, although any opinions expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of Medisave, its partners or the guests. So let's talk real quickly. I'm thrilled to bring in Kathy Zaremba from the Medisave team, who is just back from two conferences. I'm going to have her tell you all about it. So, kathy, tell us about Hubs West and also Fierce Pharma Week. How did it go?
Speaker 2:Brian, great to be with you, and I couldn't be more thrilled about the outcome of both conferences. It was a whirlwind. So it was Hubs West and then Fierce quickly following that and the trends that we heard at both conferences. I mean it was really a discussion about what is happening in pharma world. There have been a lot of changing regulations that impact the industry, so everything from what's happening in DTC, what's happening with the regulations with the IRA and things like that, and then AI, of course, was a topic.
Speaker 1:And this is the first time Fierce Pharma actually combined a bunch of conferences into one larger and they called it Fierce Pharma Week, right, yes, so how did that go? What were the pros and cons of doing that?
Speaker 2:Well, okay, a pro, I will say is that high energy? I mean definitely you can always count on that conference and the team to create a buzz and an energy, and that was definitely present. I think that there were some growing pains in combining four in one. We walked in with a heavy expectation that we're going to be adding like doubling the size almost of the audience and so the leads that we were anticipating, the conversations we were hoping to have. We were very excited about that. Very excited about that.
Speaker 2:The con would be the way that the audience then was laid out. We actually had sessions on one floor and the exhibit hall on the other floor, and the net of that is that the booth traffic was nowhere near what we had last year when it was just Digital Pharma East and where we were capturing. We were at a Viasc and we were capturing everybody as they walked back and forth. They saw us multiple times a day as they were going to sessions, this time being on a different floor, even with a larger booth, we just didn't have the organic foot traffic we were looking for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's what happened. Some of these conferences, particularly Fierce, they merged it together. So the good news is there's, you know, more than 2,000 people or so going to it where it was before. The problem there is sometimes you lose that intimacy of the hey, it's a fewer number of people, but you can really really engage with them more. You don't need a separate floor for all your exhibitors, things like that. So you know it's a pro of interest in the space. Obviously, we're expanding the conference and doing two floors when it used to be one. You know, in Hubs Westhead, you know, a few hundred people as opposed to the 2,000. So, and you know, upcoming is HLTH, right, so we love coming to that conference as well. And there's others that are just so large you wonder. You know we'd rather have more focused on, you know, digital and innovation teams. Sometimes you can have better conversations, but it's a natural growing pain thing too.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned ai cath. Is it still all the buzzword? Or, especially with fierce pharma week, a lot of it is marketers and agencies, and what they're looking at is, you know many of them like, oh, ai, that was five years ago, we're on to something else, right, but? But you have a mix of. You know investors want to hear about ai all the time, and then some. So is it a? Is it a still a buzzword? It is, or is it getting like eye roll?
Speaker 2:You know, I think that it's getting a what does that mean now? Context. So yeah, that was the buzz. I've been talking about that for a couple of years now, but now pharma is digging in and saying what does that actually mean and how can I actually utilize that in a regulated environment? So how are you going to make AI safe for me to use? Am I going to be able to roll that out? And I think that's one thing that we were able to really shine in terms of how Medisafe uses AI in our platform. What does that do? How does that really enhance the patient journey? And then, how do we work with pharma to make sure that we're rolling that out in a safe way for them, so that we're abiding their MLR processes and things like that, so that it's, you know, the best of both combined?
Speaker 1:Right, so we're on the patient side of AI. So obviously, ai can be used by pharma companies and the supply chain, the formularies and research but at the end of the thing, how are patients using it? Are patients taking that adoption? So, for example, medisave Via, for example, we have an agent can make phone calls on behalf of programs, right, and I think what's going to happen with AI, particularly for voice agents for patients, I think you're going to see it's like we've talked about in the past before.
Speaker 1:It used to be online banking, right, yes, there's this banking, right. So you can imagine where people are like, oh, people aren't going to want to talk to a AI voice agent when they're going to want to talk to a real human being, when my take on that is you know, when you call and you get that message that says Kathy, you're number 24 in line to be answered, right, or tap one and you can talk to an AI automated agent and get taken care of right away, right, that to me, is going to be like, oh, yeah, let me just do that. I think you will see that those barriers somewhat break down and then everyone, it's going to be a cascade where, yeah, I don't mind talking to these and you know, these agents are really, really human-like.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what I was just going to say. It's game-changing and I challenge you to know the difference. In some cases, that sounds very real. So yeah, efficient and real sounding.
Speaker 1:Right. So how does Medisave what's the time Like? For example, give me an example of how a patient may get a call from an agent from the Medisave platform for example.
Speaker 2:What would it be about? Okay, so let's just say that they want help with adherence or they want to get some education. They could receive a call from VIA and then VIA could help them walk through an understanding further what's happening with their medication. Via could help them even in the onboarding process. Let's say they're new to the platform itself, so helping with the onboarding process of joining the Medisave platform. It could even be that we're trying to do benefits verification and the patient is trying to understand hey, do I have all the right documents? How do I do this? How do I really get re-verified? You know, think of that blizzard season. So it's got multiple uses and ways that patients can benefit from utilizing it.
Speaker 1:Right, and if I'm pharma, I'm like well, wait a minute. You know we can't be giving out medical advice.
Speaker 2:Right. And it's a full stop VIA does not do that.
Speaker 1:Right. In fact, if I you know, we should probably demo a call at some time on this, but you know, hey, listen, you know I have an adverse event. I have a. For some reason I get nauseous every time I take this. Oh, full stop, and it says you need to talk to your health professional. You mentioned income verification. Yes, right, so blizzard season. I got to reaffirm my copay card. How does Mesa for these digital tools really help with that to expedite it versus sometimes you have to send a fax?
Speaker 2:right. Well, first of all, through the platform we're able to do secure document exchange. So all in one place you don't have to do the antiquated faxing. So patients are able to upload their documents securely, exchange those, and VIA is able to offer them an option of walking them through that process. They'll get a link within the platform to upload those documents and then you know, easy peasy done. So makes it very streamlined.
Speaker 1:They upload, they take a picture of it.
Speaker 2:They take a picture of it, right, right.
Speaker 1:So people are doing that more often with a lot of things now, right Even taxes. Picture your taxes and deposit your check yeah. You're coming to Indian banking, right. You know banking is not just banking, all right. So a couple of things. What did you learn? Anything that we learned at the two conferences? Something like, wow, that's new. Or or even it could be that's a booth or exhibit or a marketing tactic. I now want to write down and perhaps use anything there.
Speaker 2:Well, I will tell you on the on the, you know, fun cute side of things, the puppy park was back, so that always gets, and they had a puppy parade. You can't, you can't beat that, and I think all of them were adapted.
Speaker 1:By the way, yeah, what is the puppy park? For those that don't know from our good friends at GoodRx, right?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, what is it? That was a hit.
Speaker 1:Tell people what it is. What's the puppy park they literally have?
Speaker 2:Literally, they have these adorable puppies that come and you can go sit with them, you can pet them, you can adopt them, and so and they do with people that are local to the area. This was in Philly, of course, so if you're drivable to Philly, they'll let you adopt these puppies. So it's just a fun little spot to go to at each of the conferences. And they did add several other things this year in terms of engagement. So they had a golf simulator, they had, you know, the coffee machine. They always have the headshots, so people kind of count on that one.
Speaker 1:So the puppy's barking the whole time Is it cute at first, but if you're in the booth, that was interesting.
Speaker 2:The first day they must have had really big ones, because it was. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. The sound was bouncing off the walls. Is that over in that corner, or you know, it was actually in the middle. But you know, the next day, not so much, they had smaller dogs.
Speaker 1:Well, great, Anything else you'd want to add about what's coming up next?
Speaker 2:I know HLTH, HPAT, others and you know what do you expect to get out of those? Yes, yes. So HLTH, you know that is an interesting conference as well, because you really draw a lot of different stakeholders to that conference. So it's pharma, it's also regulators, so I think you'll learn a lot more about regulation that's rolling out. You'll hear directly from those FDA and others, and also investors are there. So I think it's an interesting mix of conversation for us, so that one will be very interesting, and then there are several in the access and patient services side in the coming months, and that is, of course, one of our strong sweet spots of focus on the legal side of it.
Speaker 1:Now You'll see more of those webinars or seminars, right, the class. It's kind of I don't want to say they've caught up to it, but it is getting adopted a lot more and you're going to see a lot more like how are you using AI? Again, and it's rightly so, because if you're a patient, you're like I want to know where's my data going and is being used and how, and particularly with strict regulations about how anyone can talk about a medication, a branded med, a strict rule, right. We don't want AI, what they call hallucinations right? That's the upcoming, so exciting times. Great to hear from your conference report, so we'll certainly touch base with other things as we go forward. So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:And thank you everyone for listening to the podcast. Please like and subscribe and remember some of that hard work really starts right after that first prescription. So thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2:Thank you, kat, thank you.
