Healthcare Data Leader H1 Releases Its Top Predictions for 2023

Which data will inform more diverse clinical trials? Will healthcare influencers leave Twitter? How will engaging HCP thought leaders evolve? H1 shares its prognosis.

New York, NY – December 6, 2022 – H1, the connecting force for global healthcare provider, clinical, science, and research information, today released its predictions for 2023 to help life sciences, pharmaceutical, and healthcare companies understand larger industry trends and dynamics to plan and prepare for the new year.

Access to medicine and healthcare is a basic human right. Access to the best healthcare information is also a basic human right – one that will be more important in the 21st century than ever before. When roughly one-third of all data around the world is generated within the healthcare industry, it’s clear that healthcare data holds massive potential to improve patient care. H1 is at the forefront of this movement to democratize healthcare information. Today, H1 maintains the industry’s leading ecosystem of global information, covering 10+ million HCPs, 10+ billion global claims, 250+ million patients, and 420+ thousand clinical trials across 800,000 facilities worldwide. As we approach 2023, H1 has tapped into its wealth of data and insights from working with the world’s top pharmaceutical and medical device companies to identify trends and deliver key predictions that will impact the future of data enablement, advancement of medicine and drug development, and health equity in the coming year.

“From new government directives around data to global events that impacted clinical trials, 2022 was another monumental year for the healthcare industry,” said Ariel Katz, CEO & co-founder of H1. “2023 will bring its own unique set of challenges and we’ll see the industry take profound steps to evolve through greater investment in data democratization, an emphasis on using real-world data, a renewed commitment to diversity, and most importantly, a focus on accessible and equitable healthcare.”

Katz’s Top Predictions for 2023

1. The US will become the leader in healthcare data democratization. Next year, we’ll see more initiatives aimed at democratizing and digitizing healthcare data so we can use it to foster innovation, bring drugs to market faster, and ultimately improve patient care. While a few countries have set the stage – Brazil’s DATASUS provides an integrated and open healthcare database, and Israel captures all patient data digitally from birth to death – we predict that the US will emerge as the leader in 2023. We’ve seen the value that using de-identified data can have on improving patient outcomes, and with recent federal regulations requiring that patients have digital access to their full health records, US healthcare companies will place a greater emphasis on and investment in data democratization and digitization.
2. Real-world data will become as important as clinical data. We’ll see an increase in the use of real-world data (RWD) – to the point where it will become equally as important as clinical trial data. Why? While clinical trials focus on the efficacy and safety of medications, they often fail to account for other real-world implications such as time spent in hospital, number of hospital visits after treatment, treatment attrition, and patient diversity. RWD will help fill in those gaps.
3. Drug approvals and development will hinge on diversity. The FDA and other governing bodies will increasingly hold pharma companies accountable for diversity in clinical trials. In doing so, we’ll see more and more drugs rejected – not because of efficacy issues, but because diverse patient populations and providers are not being considered or recruited. We’ve already seen this with Eli Lilly and Biogen, and there will be more. This will cost pharma companies millions of dollars in wasted clinical trial costs, to the tune of an average of $1M per day for three years. But it’s extremely necessary and overdue. For progress to take place, companies will need to be held accountable for real, substantial changes to their clinical trial processes.
4. Clinical inertia will be exposed as a barrier to progress. Imagine having a new drug available to cardiac patients that can increase life expectancy by 30%…but no one is using it. Why? When healthcare providers fail to start a new therapy or try a new medication, the phenomenon known as “clinical inertia” is often to blame. In short, doctors are trained to memorize specific treatments and over time defer to what they know best instead of considering newer advancements that might actually be safer or more effective. For example, according to our own data, 90% of cardiologists give patients the wrong treatment simply because they tend to recommend treatments they are more experienced with. We predict clinical inertia will finally be exposed as a roadblock to progress – to the point where medical schools will take steps to address it in their curriculums. As there is a change of guard within medical community leadership, next-gen doctors will take active steps to avoid it.

Top 3 Predictions for Medical Affairs and MSLs

Another H1 executive has also shared thoughts on what’s in store for 2023. In her role as Vice President of Client Solutions, Stacey Rivkin works closely with teams across the pharma and life sciences spectrum, including clinical operations and feasibility teams for trials, Medical Affairs teams, MSLs, and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs).

“We’ve also learned that the roles of Medical Affairs and MSLs are evolving, as is the notion of what defines a modern KOL. This will be critical to improving health equity, patient access, and accelerating go-to-market activities,” Rivkin states.

Her top three predictions impacting these groups include:

1. Healthcare influencers won’t leave the (Twitter) nest, but will spread their wings. Despite the threats that influencers (including healthcare opinion leaders) will leave the flock amid Twitter’s ongoing turmoil, the reality is that they will continue to use the platform to share and amplify their messages. Still, we’ll see practitioners spread their wings as they become more digitally savvy and comfortable creating digital content (think: dermatologists sharing stories on Instagram, or pediatricians creating YouTube shorts).
2. Our concept of KOLs and Med Affairs will completely evolve. We tend to approach key opinion leaders (KOLs) like a pyramid, placing a few key, well-known experts at the very top echelon and everyone else at the bottom. This is going to change. We will continue to redefine what it means to be a KOL, placing less emphasis on which academic institutions they are from or how many times they’ve been published. We will also see a big shift in how the industry organizes its medical affairs teams, with the creation of roles like digital engagement leads. From targeting treatment leaders and digital opinion leaders, to discovering the influencers of tomorrow, to modernizing internal teams within pharma companies – each of these types of thought leaders will become critical.
3. MSLs will follow the patients instead of the academic degrees. While MSLs’ geographic territories are traditionally dictated by the closest top-tier academic medical center, we’ll likely see a shift to prioritizing patient populations. Traditionally, states like Florida, which lacks a heavy-hitter academic medical institution but has one of the highest patient populations, will only have one MSL, whereas a small state like Maryland will have many because of an esteemed institution like Johns Hopkins. In the coming year, we’ll see this mindset shift to focus on where the patients are and assign MSLs accordingly. This will bring a broader diversity of thought as MSLs mix with more diverse groups of physicians, and promote health equity as more diverse patient populations are served.

To make strides in achieving health equity, the industry will need to prioritize making de-identified healthcare data accessible and shift how it defines and engages with important stakeholders. For more information on how H1 can help, visit h1.co.

About H1

H1 is the connecting force for global HCP, clinical, scientific and research information. The H1 Connect platform democratizes access to HCP knowledge and groundbreaking insights for life sciences, academic medical institutions, health systems, and payors. H1 Connect fuels a robust product suite that helps customers discover and engage industry experts, drive equitable research, access groundbreaking science, and accelerate commercial success with the most robust and accurate healthcare professional data. Learn more at h1.co.

Media Contact:

Anya Nelson
Scratch Marketing + Media for H1
[email protected]