Lab data has become an increasingly essential dataset for pharmaceutical companies at all stages of the product life cycle. A key use case for our MMIT clients is using lab data for commercial targeting. Since lab tests often represent one of the earliest data points in a patient’s diagnostic journey, pharma companies are using lab results to identify potential patients and their physicians in time to directly impact the patient’s treatment plan. By coupling lab data with clinical expertise, pharma companies can focus on physicians who recommend and prescribe treatments for applicable patients.
I spoke to Patrick Winniewicz, executive director of Healthcare Analytics Solutions at Quest Diagnostics, about the diverse possibilities for lab data in improving patient access.
Q: Why are more pharma companies using lab data now, and for what purposes?
A: Pharma companies want to get closer to the diagnostic journey, and lab tests and results are so much more expedient than claims data. Lab data has historically functioned as an outside data source, which is now making its way into the mainstream. For years, pharma companies have relied on real-world data from claims and EHR records, but lab data was an add-on source required only for certain scenarios.
In fact, lab data is incredibly useful for clinical trial recruitment and enrollment, clinical protocol development, and recognition of adverse events. Companies are also using lab data for longitudinal tracking. Being able to see the changes in a patient’s levels or result values over time is an indication of disease progression and/or therapy effectiveness. Changes in those biomarkers can provide valuable insight into the effects of a medication on that patient. Some conditions take a good amount of time to progress; they’re not an acute yes or no. Pharma companies can leverage the lab data to understand if a patient is trending towards a disease state, or to determine the advancement of their disease once a diagnosis is already made.
Q: Can you comment on using lab data for physician targeting and the impact of these programs?
A: This is one of the newer and more exciting uses of lab data, as it directly impacts the time to treatment. Pharma companies can almost immediately see if a patient tests positive for a specific biomarker, such as the monoclonal spike for multiple myeloma or the prostate-specific antigen for tumor detection.
The results also get you closer to the decision timeframe for the provider, who will be choosing the appropriate therapy for that patient. The speed of lab data is pivotal here, because the sooner a pharma company knows that a positive lab result has been received, the sooner they can provide education to the treating physician.
Read the full Q&A with Patrick Winniewicz at BioPharma Dive. To learn how lab data can help your team identify potential patients and their physicians before the prescribing decision is made, visit MMIT’s Lab Data for Commercial Targeting page.
