Seeing Beyond the Human Eye with OptimizeRx CCO, Theresa Greco

Hi. My name is Chris Hayden, and I'm with Fierce. And I'm joined today by Teresa Greco, chief commercial officer at OptimizeRx. Teresa, I would love it if you could introduce yourself to our audience. Absolutely. Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me today. Of course. So Teresa Greco, chief commercial officer at OptimizeRx. I have been in this industry for about thirty years, starting actually working for a manufacturer and then, you know, kind of falling in love with the needs of the industry. And then now working in a, organization that supports the needs of of, you know, finding patients, really helping drive, you know, outcomes in the use of medications that can truly be life changing and outcome changing. My role within Optimize, you know, as a chief commercial officer of the business, I am responsible for essentially all things that touch the market. So, you know, customer engagement, delivery of our solutions, marketing ourselves. So a lot of what we do for our clients who are in the marketing aspects of pharma, we do for ourselves as well, and that falls under me, as well. So it's something I love to do, you know, driving growth of company. And so I kind of drink my own Kool Aid in my day to day job and what I do for our customers. That's great. Love it. That's fantastic. I like that. Drink your own Kool Aid. And drink your own Kool Aid. That will be in the quote. Thank you. So just opening question, kinda set the stage for us a little bit. You know, pharma marketing has evolved significantly significantly in the recent years. And from your perspective, what is the most critical trend kinda driving this industry forward? Well, I mean, if you look at the agenda for this event and you sat in any of the sessions, it might sound cliche if I actually say artificial intelligence. But, I mean, truly I mean, really, the the industry over the past thirty years, the use of data and technology has just been paramount to the growth, expansion, evolution, every single facet over over all of those years. And so now the latest, of course, is is AI. And, you know, the application of AI is more powered when you have more data. Right. So for me, it's like it's just a natural evolution in a way of things that have been happening over time. It was first more data, then it was big data, then it was master data management, then it was claims data, and then on and on. And now it's, you know, really powering with the use of technology to, really help see things that maybe might be absent from the human eye without the support of that advancement in technology, and then allowing the human intelligence facets to just accelerate their ability to make an impact because they have more informed, you know, content, strategies, now creative, lots of different things that AI is, playing a role in. Yes, I do occasionally use chat to make things easier for myself. I think we all do. Yes. We all do. We don't talk about it, but we do. I do. That's my my new my new resolution. Yes. I agree. So just kind of bringing it back to OptimizeRx a little bit. You know, what advantages does aligning, health care providers and DTC marketing offer pharma brands over previous approaches, to physician and consumer marketing? Yeah. So this is a great question. This is very near and dear to Optimize and our our core mission. So a little over a year ago, OptimizeRx acquired MedexHealth. And part of that acquisition was really bringing together the, you know, the, the power of what Optimize was bringing to the table, which was, the ability to engage, healthcare providers at the point of care, through EHR workflows. Adding on to that and using technology and using the advantage of the time. So it's not just knowing which HCPs, but also when. Right? Yep. So bringing into that mix the, direct to consumer aspects that were brought to the table by medics, The power of bringing them together is and now we're a year and a half into this. So we, you know, we're seeing, like, real life, like, measured performance of campaigns that have been done where both an HCP and DTC are brought together, and the combination of them together gets better results than them separately. And the reason for that is, you know, when you have a patient that can be informed about a potential care option during the window in which they're going to be going to a doctor or some kind of a, you know, medical practitioner for for treatment, it helps just inform different conversations. Right? So in one of the sessions yesterday, they were talking about, DTC advertising and that there's a a mountain of evidence that shows that, I mean, when you turn on the TV, there's ads after ad after ad. I mean, we're we're in that space of of marketing. Yep. But those ads are happening because they're driving results. They're driving patients to go have informed conversations with their HCP. Last year, we we did a, well, we didn't do it, but we we paid a market research firm to, to do a study. And we talked to HCPs. We talked to the health care providers about what their thoughts were on advertising. And they said that, you know, on average, about seventy percent were saying that there's positive, but we have a lot of work to do. Right. Because right now, there's the industry itself itself is still, frankly, very disconnected. We're getting there though. We are getting there. And some of the disconnection that I I reference is more around to me, it's the basic p and l structure of pharma because at some point, someone owns the p and l, someone at my level. Right. But the brand managers typically are focused on provider or on DTC. Right. The agencies with whom they partner typically are, you know, you know, focused on one or the other. Right. But when you can bring them together, it's very powerful. And we are seeing the results of that in our own clients who've done campaigns that have brought the two. So to me, that's one of the big trends. And and, you know, we are, I think we're unique, in the fact that we do have both both, pieces. We have patented technology that we're bringing into the mix that allows us to be, kinda more accurate and more precise around the timing. It's the timing. So it's, you know, the omnichannel, which is a word at another conference, like, we can't use the word omnichannel anymore. But I mean, it it is what it says it is, trying to reach, you know, your audience, whether that's a provider or a patient or both, through multiple different channels, whether it's on TV, it's streaming, it's on your phone, on display, you know. And so with with, you know, the the availability of multiple channels through which we can access, there's a huge opportunity. So it's we've tapped into it. The the industry, I feel, is definitely moving in that direction. Yeah. There's a lot more talk about bringing them together. Organizationally, I think within some of our clients, they're still trying to work toward the how, how they do it. Yeah. But, you know, we're we're partnering, as best we can within the, you know, the constructs to try to help make that happen. And getting results from the ones that we were doing early on, the early adopters, the, most innovative clients, I think that's going to help the industry hear results. People like using results, and measurement and say, well, where have you done it before? Can you prove it? And the answer is, we might not be able to tell you where, but we can prove it. We can show you some results. So to me, that's one of the the, you know, great opportunities. So and then also going back to question number one, you'd start applying technology and and AI to that. It becomes really powerful. The last comment I'll make about HTP and, DTC, unless you have other questions about it is, you know, the privacy, privacy, privacy. Yes. Right? And that's always paramount. I mean, HIPAA has been around forever, all the different state legislation. And I mentioned we have patented technology with it's called micro neighborhood targeting, and it we never touch PII. We never even touch it. And our methodology and our patent with our our tech, really allows us to, message kind of at the household level within, like, a neighborhood might be just, say, ten households. Right. So we eliminate noise where there isn't a signal or there's no data to suggest that there's a person in that area, but there's there's never really a, an opportunity to breach any kind of privacy laws. Good. Good. That's great. And I'm curious. I wanna go back to the, you mentioned, seventy percent of of each of providers felt positive about Eric. Did that number surprise you at all? It surprises me a little bit. It it didn't. So it it doesn't surprise me because while they are happy that generally happy that patients are coming in more informed, the kind of side effect is sometimes patients are coming in asking for things Right. That's right. That they that they don't need or aren't the right fit. Right. And that's where the we have work to do Okay. Okay. Part came in. Yeah. Right? So even though, they like having a more informed patient, someone that's, you know, educating themselves and trying to understand, but they don't like the I had to waste part of my visit with this patient telling them that this drug isn't the right drug for them, but something else might be or it's not appropriate at all. Yeah. So that's the that's the great opportunity of if we can or when we can bring those messages together. Right. And patients are going in and they're asking more informed questions of their ACP. That's where the real power of, you know, positive outcomes can really be derived. Yeah. I love it. That's interesting. So I hate to do it to you, but we have to talk artificial intelligence. Okay. So and you touched on it a little bit here. But I'm I'm curious to hear a little get a little deeper in the weeds here. But, you know, why why is artificial intelligence so critical to synchronized, HCP and DTC marketing? Yeah. I I mean, I'd sort of touched on this earlier, but I think, you know, part of the promises of AI is its its speed, its power. It's taking these, like, terabytes of data that exists now in every I mean, we're creating data constantly. It's making that meaningful quickly Yes. In a way that really allows the human intelligence part to just be more effective. Right. You know, finding trends and patterns that, you know, perhaps can't be seen by the human eye as as quickly. There was, a speaker yesterday who, showed a quote from somebody at at Penn, and it said something to the effect of, if we stop doing anything with AI today, if we just stop doing any kind of, development, it would take us, like, ten years to harness the power of what we already have Oh my god. Created. Wow. Right? It might have been five years, but it was it was pretty significant to just sit and think about that. Like, the technology we already have, we haven't really even tapped into to the potential that we will. Right. And to me, that's, I mean, that's one of the great things about again, I mean, data has just started it's been growing and growing and growing, as I said earlier. But then applying AI to that, machine learning, identifying trends using, you know, patterns, identifying words, that might be, you know, meaningful to try to bring things, together. And, you know, I think it also starts to lean toward, you know, when you have personalized medicine Yep. You know, personalizing medicine when you don't know who the actual patient is. Right? Yep. Exactly. It's it's like you're not targeting John Smith. You're targeting an unknown entity that has characteristics, and using technology is a great way to do that and do it in a meaningful way that's also privacy safe. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yes. So, you you know, have you seen a a shift in the metrics and performance indicators being used to measure the synchronized, HCP and DTC omnichannel programs? I mean, yes. Over the years for for sure. I mean, when I go, like, way, way back, you know, it was all about just NRX and TRX. Right? And, you know, looking at, you know, reach and frequency and, you know, ROI outcomes, return on investment outcomes. I comment on, you know, personalized medicine. Right? If you think about that concept and you apply it to measurement, there's almost personalized measurement. I should TM that, by the way. Personalized measurement sounds like a good deal. Yeah. I'll I'll tell my marketing team. Anyway, so someone just heard me say that. I'm putting a t m there. Anyway, so what I mean by that, though, is, you know, each brand, each campaign has a different goal. Right. Of course. So really, really establishing upfront. This part shouldn't be new, but establishing the upfront. What is it we're really trying to accomplish and and how are we gonna measure it? Right? So starting with, you know, starting the journey with the like, having the end in mind. Right? But when I talk about, you know, personalized measurement, you know, what is what is the goal? Is it an awareness campaign? Is it, you know, trying to drive market share? Like, you have different tactics and strategies based on what it is you're trying to accomplish, and you're gonna measure them differently too. You know? And, like, at a patient level, for example, it might just simply be making patients aware that products are out there and then informing them of the types of questions they might wanna ask their doctor about. On the HCP side, it might be, you know, really knowing timing of when, you might know that there's a cost benefit or a co pay opportunity. Lots of different angles, but, you know, what do what are you trying to really measure? And then ultimately, you know, really trying to establish that upfront and then on the back end, really, you know, driving toward that. Right. Yeah. It's interesting. I suppose it would also depend on kind of the life cycle of Of course. Yeah. What are you doing program? Of course. So The life cycle of program and life cycle of the drug. Right. But those things are the upfront part. Like, what are you really trying to accomplish with this Right. This program? Yeah. You know, like, where are you trying to reach your target audience? You know, what is your message and how are you how are you trying to determine that that outcome? Yeah. It's hard. It's hard. I love it. So closing question. Just kind of, you know, kinda wrap things up a little bit. But I'd be curious to hear from your point of view, you know, what do you see as the biggest opportunity for pharma marketers in the next five years, and how should the industry prepare for it? You've kinda touched on it a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I I do feel like I've touched on it. It's it's I mean, to me, when I talk to clients, I hear this often. We have more data than we know what to deal with. Yes. Right? I think it's to me, it's figuring out the knowing what to do with part. Right? And AI will certainly part be part of that equation, machine learning, really, you know, I I do think that there's an opportunity to, you know, pharma brands engaging with partners, maybe different commercial constructs of how they're engaging with with partners, like us. But, yeah, I mean, really really harnessing the power of data, leveraging technology, continuing to leverage the advancement of technology, which we know is gonna continue Yeah. And then, you know, in a way, reframing the human aspect Yeah. Yeah. Of of what we're doing. Because, you know, maybe we're not we don't need to be a spreadsheet jockey. We have someone else doing that for us, or we've got a machine that's accelerating that for us. You know, I I think that's that's part of it. And then also what I what I mentioned earlier about organizational alignment with HCP and DTC, bringing them into the mix so that they can have more, almost interoperability within their own organizations. Not that interoperability isn't extremely relevant when I talk about data and tech as well. Right. You know, being able to have those kind of, you know, cross, connections that can allow for meaningful measurement, discussion, campaigns, programs, performance, all of those things. Yeah. So I think I mean, for me, I I obviously don't have a crystal ball. No. But it's the trends that we are seeing now, I think, are gonna continue. They're gonna accelerate, and everything is just gonna get stronger and better to be able to help, support those things. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Now I just real quick question just because I'm curious. You've been in the industry for about thirty years, you said. Yes. How long how many of those thirty years has interoperability been in conversation? Oh, my. Is it thirty years? Well, the word interoperability wasn't being used for thirty years. Yeah. It's funny, like, when when you think about data and and the advancement, it was started out like databases. Yeah. And it was, like, customer data integration. Right. And then it was data warehouses, and then it was, you know, data platforms, then it was big data. You know? Right? So all these things have continued. I think interoperability, particularly to health care, it's probably been longer, but I'm gonna say at least the past decade. Yeah. I agree. You know, as data has just proliferated Right. You know, I'm I'm going I'm gonna say at least a decade. Yeah. I agree. And, you know, there there have been advances in technology, and there have been, you know, company companies like Datavont who have come out with a, you know, the, tokenized mechanism of being able to, in a safe way, linking things together from a healthcare standpoint. Right? So, you know, things like that have certainly advanced. Datavant, That's probably been over ten years. It's probably been over ten years. But yeah. But certainly, the past decade, it's been it's it's it's core because, again, going to the other point, we have more data than we know what to do with. Is all the data interoperable? Is it all necessary? Right. It's probably all necessary, but it might not always be as useful as it could be Yeah. Or or or will be. Right. Yeah. We're figuring it out. We're figuring it out. Yes. Exactly. But it's there. Yep. Yes. It is. It's there. Alright. Well, Theresa, thank you so much for joining today. Thanks for having me.