Are we having the right conversations?

Like many stakeholders working in the life science arena, I have been doubled-down in the industry’s ongoing work to realize all things patient centeredness in healthcare. Patient as customer and value driver. Patient as the Northstar for all we do to engage clinical decision makers in making the right choices with and for their patients. With the industry’s continued focus on transforming | reimagining | rethinking what is possible, it is a wonder why the end goal – to ensure that every patient experiences meaningful care that aligns to their wants and needs and circumstances – continues to elude so many patients.

We often numb ourselves from this painful realization — falling back on an assumption that the barriers to achieving more are inherent limitations of a business sector that is highly regulated and unable to intervene in local, system-based decisions and barriers. We can only do our part in a complex marketplace in which friction is assumed and a general acceptance normalizes “there is only so much we can do” thinking. Given the strength of our expertise and relative depth of our resources, significant opportunity exists in challenging this “fete accompli thinking” and in truly reimagining what could be possible by engaging in new conversations about how to make the impossible possible for more.

Conversations set the stage for how we think about problems. And how we reframe problems – so that they are anchored in a broader and deeper understanding of the external world in which care is actually experienced. Conversations set the stage for finding new paths for reaching more patients, in new ways. And when leveraged for learning and not for leading, new conversations open up the new doors we seek for delivering more patient-centered impact, which funny enough establishes the leadership we seek.

As pressures mount on life science companies to transform more quickly to deliver the innovation that patients need now, life science professionals need to think differently, and start new conversations that are not included in launch playbooks or annual slide templates. Broader and deeper impact will come from looking out, learning from other sectors, and reimagining what conversations to advance with collaborators to establish new strategies for market success.

To begin, we need to build a culture of curiosity and engage in new conversations. Conversations in which we may not control the answer. Conversations that may take us down unchartered yet promising waters, and conversations that will require courage to pursue. Success will come from staying open, keeping up on broader healthcare and non-healthcare trends, and rethinking what conversations matter — in today’s changing world - for delivering therapeutic innovation in new ways.

In the spirit of engendering broader conversations to reset what matters in our collective approach to science commercialization, this blog will work to spark Conversation Starters for curious yet busy professionals who want to keep an eye on the scientific, market trends and technological developments happening outside, which might inform new thinking and conversations to drive change.

What conversations matter to you? What might be possible if we started new conversations with external stakeholders, and let the conversation lead us to fresh air and new opportunities?