American Pharmaceutical Review
CompareNetworks
Way back when, pre-Internet, the publishing company I worked for produced about 21 different magazines. All were new product tabloids covering every imaginable industry. As a result, we had a large editorial department, since this was pre-internet, and pre-email, everything was sent to us via regular mail. Editors had to sort through piles of mail, choose products that were appropriate to their markets and write up new product reviews, oftentimes more than a hundred for each issue.
After an issue was complete, one of the tasks each editor had to do every month was to take a printed issue, and assign a code to every product and every advertisement. This was a tedious task that involved looking through a massive printout of product categories, finding the appropriate code, and writing that code on every piece of content in the issue. Depending on the size of the issue – this task could take hours to complete.
Once finished, the marked-up issue was sent to Data Entry for processing. As Editors we all assumed this data was being used for some purpose. When, finally, the inevitable happened, and someone asked what the data was being used for, the answer came back, “We aren’t using it for anything, but keep doing it in case we need it, because we might.”
It wasn’t long after this, that we were allowed to end this task. To this day, I have no idea if that data collected was ever used for anything worthwhile. Who knows, all this data could be sitting in a cloud somewhere.
I imagine the pharmaceutical industry has operated in this way for some time. Collect as much data as possible, store it, because who knows someday it might be needed.
This is a wasteful, time-consuming and inefficient practice. As a traditionally conservative industry, you can sort of understand why it has been this way for so long, but finally there are some initiatives taking hold that will hopefully transform the collection of data into truly actionable information.
First is the promise of Big Data. With all of the data companies have been collecting, the time has finally come where this data can be used for advancing programs and products. Without going into details leveraging Big Data is finding applications in advancing clinical trials, increasing industry collaboration, streamlining sales and marketing, and developing apps for consumers.
On the heels of the Big Data push is the Pharm 4.0 initiative – which will essentially tie all resources - human, data, and physical machines – in one virtual network.
Pharma 4.0 combines diverse technologies, including big data analytics and cloud computing. The ability to analyze the enormous amount of data collected and then share insights will allow faster innovation and a quicker response to changing market dynamics.
It’s encouraging to see data used for a purpose, other than just for “in case.” Technology has advanced to the point where billions of pieces of data can be collected and stored for every operation. It’s time that data was leveraged for good.