Data and Analytics Are Important for Oncology Strategy: Here’s Why

Data and analytics can convert healthcare information into actionable intelligence, which can significantly impact research and prediction of illnesses, early detection of diseases, and discovery and commercialization of new drugs.

A health system with reliable data and analytic capabilities can also transform cancer care. Research about cancer, particularly for rare types like the different stages of mesothelioma, is ongoing. 

Rare diseases are difficult to investigate and study. So, the healthcare industry should quickly adopt advanced data and analytics to improve treatment approaches for cancer and rare diseases.

But how can data and analytics lead to more precise cancer treatment and help you grow your business? What are the health systems-specific solutions you need to reach your customers and address their concerns?  

This article explains why data and analytics are important for oncology strategy. It discusses how data and analytics can help you and your business commercialize a cancer drug and reach the patients who can benefit from your therapy, ensuring that it’s being used and prescribed in the right way. 

Additionally, the write-up covers specific solutions for your oncology strategy. It also discusses how data and analytics can lead to more precise cancer treatment. 

Keep reading to learn how data and analytics can help you and your business reach the patients who can benefit from your therapy, ensuring that your oncology strategy provides them with health systems-specific solutions.

Data and Analytics: Why Are They Important for Oncology Strategy?

Cancer is a complex disease. It’s constantly changing and evolving. So, biopharmaceutical companies and the healthcare sector, in general, should apply advanced data and analytics to their work in oncology.  

You may have access to mountains of data each day. Unfortunately, those data won’t do you any good if you struggle to convert them into insights that improve your operational efficiencies and patient outcomes. 

But, if you have the correct and relevant data, you can use them to mold your marketing efforts based on what your patients are looking for to suit their lifestyles and preference.

In other words, raw data have limited value until you convert them into a valuable commodity. Here’s where data and analytics come into play. 

Data and analytics provide a systematized way to organize, analyze, and interpret various data. In oncology, applying advanced data and analytics can deliver value from research and early development to market access and commercialization.

The global oncology market was valued at 286.04 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. The rising investment in the biopharmaceutical industry has inspired the development of innovative drugs and therapeutics, fostering the demand for oncology diagnostics and treatments. 

Oncology therapeutics account for around 20% of the global pharmaceuticals sale. The higher potential for profit and the rising importance of innovative cancer treatments attract key market players to invest in the oncology market.  

Utilizing advanced data and analytics can enhance your organization’s competitive position through advanced research initiatives and improved quality of your products.

The Benefits of Data and Analytics for Oncology

Based on the 2013 to 2017 cancer cases in the U.S., cancer incidence is 442.4 per 100,000 men and women yearly. 

Additionally, about 60% of cancer occur in individuals 65 and older. But older adults make up a small proportion of clinical trial participants only. So, the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) pushes cancer trials to include more older people.  

Cancer research and treatment are ongoing and constantly evolving. Still, cancer continues to affect millions of people across the globe despite significant breakthroughs in understanding this disease. 

Because of the changes in policies and the complexities of cancer, your research effort is understandably tricky. Adding to the challenge is the considerable amount of data processing you must deal with. 

The oncology drug market is also complex. Efficacy is vital in a value-based care world. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and health plans will assess the trade-offs between cost and value and current evidence-based medicine before including your drug in the preferred drug list (formulary). 

But if you have an adequate data and analytics strategy, you can simplify all these things, enabling your biopharmaceutical company to respond to those demands accordingly.  

Below are the benefits of data and analytics for oncology:

  1. Improved Medical Research Through Clinical Data Analysis 

The healthcare sector has been applying data and analytics to improve research efforts in various health-related areas by gathering and analyzing clinical data from different sources. 

The most reliable sources of clinical information are as follows:

Public health records contain various sources of health data for medical research. For instance, the National Cancer Institute’s CRDC or Cancer Research Data Commons connects data sets with analytics tools so individuals can share, integrate, visualize, and analyze cancer research data to drive scientific discovery.  

  1. Improved Health Outcomes Using Patient Data 

When cancer diagnosis becomes more precise, your therapies also get complex because you must target individual cancer patients with a particular medical condition and genetic. 

An adequate data and analytics strategy will give you a comprehensive view of a patient’s treatment journey in your new oncology therapy. 

  1. Optimum Outcomes for Your Oncology Therapy 

Your data and analytics strategy can help you confirm whether your new drug is working. You can assess whether physicians and oncologists use your therapy. 

More importantly, the data will tell you if your drug works. Using your data and analytics strategy, you can generate and correctly interpret the real-world outcomes of your oncology therapy.

How Data and Analytics Can Help Commercialize a Cancer Drug

Knowing and identifying your potential market is essential to commercialization. The data can help you identify patients who could benefit most from your new oncology drug. You’ll know their cancer type, biomarkers, and other medical conditions they’re diagnosed with. 

The data can also connect you with physicians at oncology practices who can prescribe your new drug. You can also get information on the medical professionals’ practice profiles, prescribing patterns, and preferences regarding how they want to treat their cancer patients.  

The data can also assist you with the PBMs (pharmacy benefit management) and health plans by helping you understand health plan coverage and reimbursement trends. Learning about these trends allows you to develop targeted market access strategies to help commercialize your new drug. 

Providing Health Systems-Specific Solutions to Your Patients 

Buxton understands your business and uses analytics tailored to health systems. Through data and analytics, you can identify and categorize patients based on their health factors. 

Let us help you communicate the right message to your target customers by optimizing your access strategy. 

Contact us today so we can work together to help you grow and thrive in the ever-evolving healthcare landscape. 

References 

  1. What’s New in Malignant Mesothelioma Research?
    https://www.cancer.org/cancer/malignant-mesothelioma/about/new-research.html
  1. 4 Benefits of Data Analytics in Healthcare View all blog posts under
    https://online.maryville.edu/blog/data-analytics-in-healthcare/
  1. Oncology Market
    https://www.precedenceresearch.com/oncology-market
  1. Cancer Statistics
    https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics
  1. Cancer in the Elderly: Challenges and Barriers
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5763438/
  1. Global progress against cancer—challenges and opportunities
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3860343/

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