The trade magazine Pharma Relations has published a guest article by Malte Bucksch, managing director of QuickBird Medical. In it he analyses the current challenges in marketing digital health applications (DiGA) and shows why personal contact with doctors is the decisive success factor.
Although the digitalisation of healthcare offers promising options for monitoring and therapy support, the reality of the market reveals considerable hurdles. Marketing to the medical profession in particular presents problems for manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies: many doctors are simply not sufficiently informed about what is available, or are sceptical about integrating digital tools into existing treatment concepts.
Why conventional advertising falls short
The guest article makes clear that purely digital or conventional marketing campaigns can create attention for the DiGA concept, but hardly lead to rising prescription numbers.
“For most DiGA indications, the most effective method is direct sales with a field force,” explains Malte Bucksch. “The majority of doctors either do not yet know about DiGA, or have heard of them but are not yet actively prescribing them.”
Making use of synergies with the pharmaceutical industry
As a solution, Bucksch argues for modelling the distribution of digital applications on classic pharmaceutical sales. Cooperation with pharmaceutical companies lends itself to this: because they already have established, specialised field force structures, considerable synergy effects can be realised in marketing. The DiGA can then be presented in a personal conversation as a sensible addition to a company’s own products.
Focus on medical evidence
For this approach to work, according to Bucksch, the line of argument also has to change. Instead of purely technical features, the proven medical benefit must be the focus: “Doctors should be shown that DiGA are not toys, but have to demonstrate evidence through randomised controlled trials, just like a medicine.”
The full article appeared in the January 2024 issue of Pharma Relations.