Harnessing AI to Modernize the Physician Handshake

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, revolutionized healthcare by refuting the notion that magic could cure all. He was a proponent of personalization and taught about the uniqueness of disease and the necessity of a customized treatment plan. As he said, “for the sweet ones do not benefit everyone, nor do the astringent ones, nor are all the patients able to drink the same things."

He traveled extensively to teach his methods, akin to the “feet on the street” approach the pharma industry has adopted today – dispatching reps to meet with physicians and have a dialogue. Physical handshakes became the hallmark of personalized interactions. Then along came COVID-19, and, with sales forces grounded, physicians realized that fewer rep interruptions were beneficial and began seeking out information sources they could review at their discretion.

Many physicians are now limiting sales rep access. To balance the need for better and faster information, they have evolved to become digital omnivores, consuming information across a multitude of digital channels, sources and screens.

With physicians’ attention increasingly divided, the pharma industry tried to adapt by leaning more heavily on media to capture share of attention but subsequently inundated them with high volumes of digital content. Physicians became more selective about the content they consumed, avoiding generic ads and challenging marketers to create better experiences with more valuable content that could help them improve patient care.

Yet, nearly 2,500 years after Hippocrates, some marketers still believe that all patients are alike, and that their physicians will be influenced by the same standardized engagements they see from everyone.

We cannot assume all physicians will benefit from the same standalone banner ad on a medical website or print ad in a trade journal. More than ever, it is vital that marketers understand physician needs and deliver personalized content to engage them in more meaningful ways. By walking physicians along their individual journeys, we can ultimately help them provide more individualized care and facilitate a better patient experience.

Real Chemistry is embracing a new approach by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)-driven insights to deliver human-centric experiences. We develop custom patient audiences and engage physicians as people – not merely as a 10-digit National Provider Identifier (NPI) number. Our AI-powered data science divisions Swoop and IPM.ai leverage a real-world data universe of over 300 million de-identified patients to define, find and profile the ideal patient for treatment and map their diagnostic and treatment journey to physicians. We then draw on our proprietary database of over 500 million observed physician media exposures and engagements to identify content, message and media channel affinities.

This insight, combined with the use of CRM, data intelligence and automation platforms such as Veeva, IQVIA, Salesforce and Aktana, enable us to employ omnichannel media activation and a personalized experience for each physician. AI learns how physicians interact across media to determine what digital action should happen next, triggering tailored creative and messaging for more relevant, informative and impactful ad experiences.

Our AI-powered technology can also mimic (and perhaps even improve upon) a physical sales interaction. ConversationHealth, part of Real Chemistry, leverages medically trained natural language processing, AI and supervised machine learning to develop virtual rep experiences with near-human interactions. Our personalized conversational AI units respond to physician queries with rich data and insights on topics ranging from odd symptomology, side effects, medication dosage and requests for an in-person sales rep visit.

While science and AI provide the audience insights and technological groundwork for personalized engagements, it is real people who bring human-centric experiences to life. Our integrated media planning and activation team interprets the insights to frame overarching media strategies and select the appropriate channels and tactics that can best deliver these personalized experiences. We stay abreast of the latest industry trends, physician attitudes and media consumption habits to ensure these activations are timely, relevant and accountable.

With the power of AI to identify high-value physicians and understand their affinities, wants and needs, our planning and activation teams design and orchestrate strategic campaigns that deliver the right message at the most opportune time. In this way, we’re doing our part to help revolutionize the all-important physician handshake.

If Hippocrates were alive today, he might perceive AI as pure wizardry. But as an agent of progress, he too might be willing to consider a little bit of AI-magic to help modernize medicine and improve patient outcomes.

To discuss the potential of AI in healthcare and modern solutions to engage physicians, please reach out to our team at DL-EXT-HCP-Leadership-Team@realchemistry.com. If you will be at ASCO in Chicago, we can also set up a meeting at the event.