Connected Health Excellence: Assessing the Development, Deployment, and Impact of Integrated Treatment Apps

Connected health applications drive value across many vital areas. As this research shows, a growing number of healthcare manufacturers have launched connected healthcare applications which improve quality of care, patient engagement, adherence, and outcomes - while at the same time producing high business impact across therapeutic areas.

Best Practices, LLC undertook this benchmarking research to help biopharma and medical device leaders better understand the current usages, impacts, and development approaches used by competitors to build valuable connected healthcare applications. This report examines the benefits and business case for connected apps and delivery systems, common data collection practices, product development excellence, external partnership models, and prevailing regulatory approaches.

Industries Profiled:
Health Care; Pharmaceutical; Diagnostic; Biopharmaceutical; Consulting; Manufacturing; Biotech; Consumer Products; Medical Device; Clinical Research; Science; Technology


Companies Profiled:
Abbott; AbbVie; Alnylam Pharmaceuticals; Ashfield Healthcare; Astellas; AstraZeneca; Bayer; BioMarin; Bristol-Myers Squibb; Cadila Pharmaceuticals; Evolution Road; GE Healthcare; Johnson & Johnson; Kaleidoscope Health and Care; LifePlus; Mallinckrodt; Merck; Merck KGaA; Novartis; Pharm-Olam; Phillips-Medisize; Science 37; Seca - Precision For Health; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Thermo Fisher Scientific; Wipro

Study Snapshot

Best Practices, LLC engaged 29 leaders from 26 life sciences organizations through a benchmarking survey in this research. Deep-dive interviews were conducted with five biopharma executives to provide further insight.

Key topics covered in this report include:

• Prevalence of connected applications being developed and launched by biopharma and device manufacturers
• Regulatory approval pathways
• Connected app investment
• Connected app opportunity areas, ROI and impact level
• Data collection models
• Adverse events and product complaints monitoring approaches
• Application development and outsourcing models of competitors
• Recommended 3rd-party development partners
• Software development team reporting

• Scale - Nearly 90% of app-making companies have launched multiple apps across their portfolio:

• Among surveyed companies who have developed connected applications, nearly nine out of ten have developed multiple ones.
• Large Healthcare Orgs: 61% of orgs have launched between 4-9 apps (46%) or 10+ apps (16%).

• Program drivers - Top 3 drivers of connected app strategy are improved outcomes, adherence & market performance:

• The top-ranked driver of app development is improving treatment efficacy and health outcomes, followed closely by increasing adherence, improving competitive performance, and evaluating real world patient use. Other objectives – such as patient education, feedback, technical improvement and reduction of AEs – are rated as significantly less important.
• Large Healthcare Orgs: The #1 driver for app development is achieving better market performance.

Sr. No.	Topic	Slide No.
I.	Executive Summary	p. 4-16
	Research Overview, Methodology & Participating Companies	p. 5
	Key Findings	p. 8
II.	Understanding the Connected Healthcare Applications of Competitors	p. 17-24
III.	Connected Application Drivers, Investment, ROI and Impact	p. 25-43
IV.	Connected Application Interfacing and Data Use	p. 44-52
V.	Connected Application Development Models of Competitors	p. 53-62
VI.	APPENDIX: Snapshot of Benchmark Participants and Their Connected Apps	p. 63-65
VII.	About Best Practices, LLC	p. 66

• Participating companies’ experience with connected healthcare applications linked to therapeutic medical devices or drug delivery devices
• Interviewed executive’s view on the significant change in the state of connected apps
• Devices / products with which benchmark participants’ FDA-approved connected healthcare applications integrate with
• Intended use of connected applications and their features
• Total number of connected healthcare applications created by benchmark organizations, including those currently in development
• Regulatory strategy used to gain approval for connected applications
• Interviewed executive’s view on taking a collaborative approach to ensure that digital health tools make their way into the market

• Most critical drivers for development of connected healthcare applications in support of therapeutic devices/drugs – Total benchmark class
• Most critical drivers for development of connected healthcare applications in support of therapeutic devices/drugs – Large vs. smaller healthcare organizations
• Therapeutic area factors creating the largest opportunities for connected healthcare applications to provide value in the market
• Investment into the development, deployment and maintenance of each connected healthcare application
• Interview narrative around recommended approach to connected app investment, development and measurement
• Measurement of Return on Investment (ROI) for connected healthcare applications
• Importance of listed areas to overall ROI measurement formula
• Range of ROI realized by benchmarked companies for their FDA-approved connected healthcare applications
• Examples of specific apps vs. ROI to date
• Reasons for certain benchmarked companies not measuring ROI for their connected healthcare applications
• Level of impact of connected healthcare applications on each of the listed areas – Total benchmark class
• Level of impact of connected healthcare applications on each of the listed areas – Large healthcare organizations
• Connected healthcare applications value growth
• Interview narrative around value of connected healthcare applications
• Additional business benefits observed by benchmarked companies as a result of deployment of connected healthcare applications
• Interview narrative around the many new opportunities for pharma to serve as a valued partner

• Data interfacing of connected healthcare applications
• Kinds of data collected from connected healthcare applications – Total benchmark class
• Kinds of data collected from connected healthcare applications – Large vs. smaller healthcare organizations
• Most valuable collected data type
• Effective tactics to ensure strong Adverse Events and Product Complaints monitoring and reporting based on data collected from connected healthcare applications
• Early design planning for connected devices & digital therapeutics
• Interview narrative around including pharmacovigilance strategies in early design planning for connected devices & digital therapeutics
• Critical factors taken into account for not collecting data from connected applications

• Software development for connected healthcare applications
• Outsourcing model of organizations outsourcing some or all of their software development
• Interview narrative on the reason for one company investing in connected health apps
• Recommended companies to partner up with for development of connected healthcare application
• Appearance (look and feel) of connected healthcare applications
• Quality System used to perform application design control for connected applications
• Order of development of connected healthcare applications
• Reporting relationship of the team which leads software development for connected healthcare application program
• Reasons for not pursuing connected healthcare applications for companies not actively developing it