The Information Supply Chain: Facilitating Outcome Based Pricing
According to an August 9th, 2016 article by Reuters, Analysis-Future of Drug Pricing: Paying for Benefits not per Pill, it was stated “..shifting the overall industry to a new model (paying for clinical outcomes) requires improvements in data collection and a change in thinking..”. The article later stated that, “Drug companies and healthcare providers will need to work together to develop systems that capture and prove a medicine’s clinical value, ideally using computerized systems that are only just emerging.”
Let’s step back and think about the implications of this article. They are discussing the free flow of data between patients, providers, manufacturers, and insurers to monitor patient response to therapy. This sounds like the Information equivalent of the current Drug Supply Chain.
Like a drug that is moved from one location or partner (external or internal) to another, data also needs to follow a similar path. In fact, the application of ADLT™ for this Information Supply Chain has the same power and potential as its use for the Drug Supply Chain. Taking this one step further, the same ADLT™ bridge for track and trace, prevention of counterfeiting etc. is the same one that can be leveraged for the Information Supply Chain. This is a step beyond focusing on just Patient Adherence as recently discussed in another blog, but really a look at gathering and transmitting the data securely to the right parties to monitor and ensure positive outcomes. It also opens opportunities for providing enhanced education and compliance programs.
This concept establishes a clear requirement for ADLT™ to serve as a trusted bridge between all of these parties and ensure the secure movement, immutable recoding, and access to the patient level data required to ensure a positive outcome. Data that can be collected by using multiple methods from surveys to the Internet of Medical Things. It also implies that the pharmacists’ role as a medication therapy expert will continue to expand and they will become a more integrated part of the healthcare team.
In our new Information Supply Chain, ADLT™ will help gather the data (raw material) that will be transformed into something of value (analysis) which will be reported (product) as a positive or negative clinical outcome. This is no different than a company receiving an API, manufacturing a drug from it, packaging it and shipping it to its ultimate customer-the patient.
Everyone involved in the biopharma industry from Research, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Regulatory or Commercial need to consider how ADLT™ can help bridge the different legacy systems and processes from the different internal/external partners they work with to build a trusted and decentralized network that will ensure bilateral communication and creates a visible, traceable, transparent, and auditable record to prove positive patients outcomes to regulators and insurers worldwide.