Innovation in Healthcare: How to Stay Ahead of the Curve With Kamya Elawadhi

Kamya Elawadhi: 0:00

So I think regulation as a word is scary for most of people, if you actually see it is nothing but to make things sensitive so that brand or any company is not making any wrong decisions or misusing the content that's available that regulation doesn't stop you from doing thing. It just

Harsh Thakkar: 0:19

what's up everybody, this is harsh from qualtivate.com. And you're listening to the life sciences 360 podcast. On this show, I chat with industry experts and thought leaders to learn about their stories, ideas and insights, and how their role helps bring new therapies to patients. Thanks for joining us. Let's dive in. All right, welcome to another episode of Life Sciences 360. My guest today is Kamya Elawadhi, and she is the SVP of platform and corporate strategy at doceree. Welcome to the show. Kamya.

Kamya Elawadhi: 0:49

Thank you so much for having me.

Harsh Thakkar: 0:51

Yeah, so I've been researching your profile. And as a leader in this healthcare, advertising and innovation space, you really had an impressive career journey. How like, what were some of the challenges that you faced when you were trying to be a leader in this space? And how did you overcome those challenges?

Kamya Elawadhi: 1:09

So I started off from advertising communication space, when I was in advertising communications space, I realized the potential of healthcare as an industry as a category because in my past experience, I started off with consumer advertising, and then I moved to health care. And when I moved to healthcare, I realize how much slow healthcare advertising is in terms of consumer if I have to come make a comparison. But gradually, I realized the challenges and the conversation that you have in healthcare are really sensitive and those understanding those sensitive nuances of healthcare as an industry made me realize what more can be done in such a regulated environment. And when we started jumping off, understanding about health care from different countries, I think that that was another interesting good challenge I would call to have because that really nurtured down the the depth of what you can do in health care with with respect to each market, there are certain markets, which are highly regulated, that doesn't allow you to talk to consumers, or patients at all. And then there are other markets, the other side of the countries that we are, we talk about, who allow you conversation or communication with patient with physicians, and there's so much data available. So I think those are certain nuances that really helped me understand and then take a first step to become moved towards this whole journey that I have in my career

Harsh Thakkar: 2:39

Interesting, and as you have been in this space. So for for doceree, like what are some of the clients that the company works with? Can you can you expand on that?

Kamya Elawadhi: 2:50

So we work primarily with healthcare and pharmaceutical brands, could be medical devices, any brand that talks to physician is what our target audience would be our target, right? Appropriate client would be for us.

Harsh Thakkar: 3:05

Okay, and what are some of the mistakes that you've seen these clients make in this healthcare advertising space that maybe you help them out in their journey?

Kamya Elawadhi: 3:14

It's very interesting question, what what, in our recently we were at Digital farming is and then we were talking to a lot of clients that we had, and a lot of potential clients. The first and the foremost thing that stood out for me in that event was that how limited understanding we have around data and the use of data that can be done. The United States, as a country has so much data available in silos, and marketers don't know how to connect that data. That is one thing that I feel, even having the access of data doesn't really give them any confidence. They just don't know how to connect. And that's the biggest mistake while they're planning their next campaign or the next actions for any brand.

Harsh Thakkar: 4:03

Yeah, I agree with you, because being in this life sciences space, like I work mostly in quality regulatory and compliance. But I would agree with you on the same idea that yes, there's a lot of data, it's not that they're shortage of data. There's also not a shortage of quality data, because the data that companies have is very good. The shortage or or the common challenge that everyone's facing is how to make a decision using that data. Right. So when the time comes to make a decision, whether it's about marketing, advertising compliance, they have to go to five different systems or get five people to get a simple answer when it should be data at their fingertips or not, at least within 30 minutes, they should be able to figure out, you know, so I've seen the same challenge.

Kamya Elawadhi: 4:55

Yeah, I agree. And that's what we try and we are trying to solve so that we Bring on, bring in all data that's available in silos to healthcare marketer and bring that to single platform so that, you know, it's easier to use easier and faster to create analytics around. So that's what our entire effort is toward making marketers life easier when it comes to data. I like to believe that, you know, most of healthcare marketers have this concept called Data blindness. Even if everything is in front of us, we don't really know how to connect apart from connecting, we don't know how to read or decode that data. We just like to grab that data and sit over it for for a long time.

Harsh Thakkar: 5:39

Yeah, data blindness. I have not heard of that term before. But yeah, I see where you're coming from. So with with the obviously we mentioned about data, and because you mentioned about data, I have to go sort of into AI and generative AI and machine learning, because most companies that are dealing with data, they are going to use AI or natural language processing in some capacity, whether it's marketing or drug discovery, or you know, whatever it is. So have you done any like proof of concepts or pilots or tested out AI internally. So

Kamya Elawadhi: 6:15

yes, we have actually worked on some of in AI and machine learning tools. We are working and you know, evaluating some planning tools, which can be utilized as we were talking about how data is available in abundance. And people don't know how to utilize that data. So our planning tool will help marketers to identify the right source of data, bring it together to put a plan marketing plan together for next year for next next year. And they can do it through different channels, different type of targeting that they want to achieve. So those are certain things that we want to do. But our ultimate goal to reach is to create an open network ecosystem where marketers can bring in the partners they're working with already bring them and integrate in one system so that they don't have to only work with us. They don't have to disconnect what whoever they're working with, they can integrate the pile for the ease for the comfort that they have with other partners and connect it in as one open network for themselves so that they can understand think it more like an iOS. When you have a new phone, you keep downloading different apps as per your requirement. You can personalize your whole experience how you want to build it. And that's how we see doceree as a whole. Where we want to become like that system for any former marketeer where they they can add multiple different apps or partners that they work with, and integrate and make it more like a seamless experience for themselves.

Harsh Thakkar: 7:54

Wow. Okay. Yeah, that's the interesting analogy that you made with the iOS. And as we were talking earlier, you mentioned you know, the challenges with being in a regulated space and every country has different regulations of what you can do and cannot do. So. How does your team constantly be in the loop of all these changing regulations that are happening in the space?

Kamya Elawadhi: 8:19

So I think regulation as a word as a term is scary for most of people, if you actually see it is nothing but to make things sensitive, so that brand or any company is not making any wrong decisions or misusing the content that's available, that regulation doesn't stop you from doing thing, it just helps you to do it in a in a more sensitive environment. And I would say we have a dedicated team of paralegals who regularly you know, work and monitor the kinds of changes that are happening because we are right now present in multiple continents multiple countries so we cover from Asia we cover approximately 20 countries from UK office we cover approx all EU five as well, which is again a sensitive market and from US, we cover Canada so we are in in a space where we have to understand different market aesthetics, different market regulation to keep ourselves abreast and we we have a dedicated team to do that.

Harsh Thakkar: 9:23

And I have seen the similar challenge on on my side also keeping up with different regulations. Again, I agree with you when when we utter the word regulation or compliance people just have like a very, it's not a negative but it's like a concerning or stressful feeling because it's like they have to do something which they're not going to like but the other way of looking at is is most regulations. Again, this is might be too simplified or a generalized statement, but most regulations are just business sense. That's right, you know, and I had some other guests on the podcast who said, you know, what if tomorrow FDA or EU came and whatever regulations popular in your industry or your space, they just took that regulation and said, You know what? Just forget that, did regulation existed? Do what you want? What would what would everyone do? Right? Like, we would think of all the risks, we could think of all the things that could go wrong. So a regulation has already done that it's not, you know, it's not a negative thing. In some cases, it's just what's practical, what's common sense, protecting patients data, protecting sensitive data. So that's how I look at it when people have that stressful feeling with no word. So I've had this discussion with many people who work in the regulated space. And one of the frustrating parts that they all mentioned, which I'm sure you face at some point, either in your role or just within the company. How do you follow regulations and still be innovative? Right? Because people complain, Oh, I cannot follow the regulations and do something new. So can you explain maybe a case study or an example of how you been in that situation? And how did you balance the regulation and the innovation?

Kamya Elawadhi: 11:23

Interesting, I think doceree as a concept itself is something which is innovative in nature, and where you, you are in front of SCP, right? When they are with the patient, that itself is something which I would call as an innovation. Because earlier, if you see we were in a single channel approach, where a physician would meet a rep, and have a conversation about that some brand, and there was no checkpoints or check mechanism we had, then we started going to a multi channel approach where there were different channels to reach out to that physician could be event could be reps could be any other medium. And then we started cross channel and then now only channel there's so many buzzwords that we keep talking about. But at the same time, I think, throughout We have always focused to keeping patient as in the center, and the universe of healthcare revolved around that. Right now, our whole approach is towards making SCP as a single center, and then touching upon multiple, you know, multiple channels to reach to that physicians, and making that seamless journey and making that connection from his 7am Coffee having a conversation with a peer or that those entire days journey can have a multiple touch point and that itself is something I would call as innovation. Because earlier that was not available a if even if it was available. In some sense, I would not say it was available in 100% chance. But even if micro pieces was over available, there was no way to connect it that my SCP saw that one message in the morning. Now I want to bust that an SCP again, one more time in afternoon or evening so that I am better on recall, it was all dependent on brick and mortar approach where a rep will go visit the office identify the time they might talk might not talk, you don't know that. So those things which were not there itself, and now it's coming. I will say that is innovation for me.

Harsh Thakkar: 13:32

Right, right. Yeah, it's happening in many spaces you mentioned like more personalized, more touch points. And not like a generic or traditional approach. I've also seen this happen in the clinical trials piece with patient enrollment and things of that nature where a lot of digital tools are being used to have like a more personalized experience. So this is something I have to ask you, because you mentioned that, you know, you have teams in different places. You have clients in Asia, Europe, first of all, how do you get all the people on your team internally to work in a collaborative manner or to have that single focus because being in different corners of the world, just hiring people in India versus Europe is all different, right? So how do you go about building like a collaborative team that always has like a single vision to work on?

Kamya Elawadhi: 14:26

Interesting. So we have a robust onboarding process, we have HR who would walk each employee through the processes through the channels, make the initial introductions bit to the company with where they can come to a new level of understanding and then we also meant do a buddy program there, which means that somebody who's coming new in the system is accompanying or shadowing another employee who's already existing in system so that just help and make sure that Do you know new person who's joining in maybe from a different country, maybe from a different region, and working on your campaigns, your programs in your country, so you can just partner with them to understand and that becomes like a springboard? Whenever you have a question, you go to that buddy, whenever you have any, any concern, anything that is not clear, you go to that, buddy. So that buddy program has really helped us, you know, building that collaborative team. And we also have lots of in house town halls that we keep doing on culture on different aspects of mentoring. So that's something which is prime focus and doceree for us. Because I know it's such a big challenge to bring everyone from different places together and hold them together. It's not it has never been easy. We were one person team from we have grown to approximately 150 team members across. So it is good the number of employees we have been able to retain and onward successfully, I would say,

Harsh Thakkar: 16:00

Wow, that's, that's really impressive. And there's so many things that come into play, right? It's the job description roles and responsibilities is one thing. But when you're dealing with somebody that lives in a different country, or continent, whatever, there's cultural family, just different rules, like paid time off versus vacation. I know there are some countries in Europe, that are have different vacation policies, and they're very strict about their vacation, they don't like being bothered when they're on vacation versus in US, it's more like, Okay, I'll have my phone or laptop, but I'm going on vacation. So I've seen that working in different big pharmaceutical companies working with people in Denmark, or Switzerland, all these Asia or other countries. So yeah, it's always a challenge to get work done. Despite of all the different factors in play,

Kamya Elawadhi: 16:53

when I think digital connectivity or virtualization really have helped a lot. Because early on, it was difficult to bring everyone on same platform all connect together. Now it's much easier because people are started to accept mobility is not a barrier to any any job, right? You can be anywhere and still finish your job. So I think COVID has really helped us nurture that way to help us think that way that you know, even if we are not in actual office space, we can still be working in it's pretty normal because of COVID. There are certain good things that COVID has taught us. And it's one of those good things where mobility is not a barrier anymore.

Harsh Thakkar: 17:34

Right. Right. I agree. Yeah, I mean, I've seen that most of the clients when I started working with our company, as well with Qualtivate in consulting space, majority of the clients that we started working with from day one have been remote. Now eventually, once we started working with the clients, we had somebody fly in or go to drive or whatever, wherever the client is. But mobility was never a barrier in choosing us or any consultant from our team, because we all knew how to get the job done. Right. So yeah, I agree that COVID was a it was an experiment for this remote work and working from like different places. And some people have gone back to the office environment because it wasn't working for for their style of work and other companies have adopted that this is a new way to work.

Kamya Elawadhi: 18:26

Yeah, it's interesting that we're talking about this topic. I recently got to know that there are digital nomad profiles, which company has started posting where you can work from any place so they don't call it remote working anymore. They call it digital nomad profiles. So it's really interesting for me to see those changes coming in. Even from the words and terminology it has evolved a lot.

Harsh Thakkar: 18:53

Yeah, and it's interesting that you you mentioned the word digital nomad because I'm actually traveling for business in first week of October, and I'm going to be gone for at least two months outside the US. So I'm traveling to Europe and Asia and I've been looking at a lot of hotels or just searching like Airbnb s and I see that word everywhere like perfect accommodation for a digital nomad, or, you know, perfect working space for a digital nomad and great Wi Fi or even health insurance I was looking at okay, if I'm leaving US and if I'm going to Europe, with my family, I should have like a backup international health insurance or something. And there are specific health insurance just for digital nomads that cover all the the main countries where most startups are like Amsterdam, London, like all the places in Europe, in India, they cover all of the cities so it's I'm already seeing a lot of businesses who are channeling in on that keyword because they know that that's what people are looking for. Yeah,

Kamya Elawadhi: 19:59

and I I have a couple of my colleagues who do that, who travel and who, you know, work in, send out emails while sitting out of beach shack or something, some places and I see those their social persona as well as their, you know, professional persona. And it's beautiful, how amazingly they have tried to balance it. It's not something that I would be comfortable doing or because I am in that still old zone where I want to have schedule and structure my day. Yep, have a cut off time, all of that. But it's wonderful to see people how everyone is evolving, and some people have strike the balance between travel and working. So it's nice, it's different change, good for some people who have accepted and move to that.

Harsh Thakkar: 20:50

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So looking forward in this healthcare, advertising and innovation space. What do you see as some of the emerging trends? What do you where do you see this going in the next five to 10 years? And how, how are you planning to stay ahead of that curve?

Kamya Elawadhi: 21:09

So I think there's a lot of innovation that's happening around the likes of ChatGPT, the likes of decoding physicians, messaging, social listening for physician specifically, but then point of care system. Those are things which are really, really interesting. And we see right now we are still in phase where we accepting digital, digital has not become like a primary plan of any pharmaceutical brand team or marketeers. I think that is one change, which I see happening, because because of the availability, because of the acceptability and how it is not a push mechanism for marketing, more like a pull mechanism, whenever it's SCP, requires something they can see, those things will I think, really help and are something which I see happening in the next one to five years.

Harsh Thakkar: 22:04

And how is your team trying to like stay ahead of that trend? Are you participating in like maybe roundtables or speaker sessions or conferences, just to talk to other leaders in the space and bounce off ideas and stuff like that?

Kamya Elawadhi: 22:19

Yes, we are actively doing that. In fact, we have a next marketing initiative and industry initiative where we try to bring these kinds of topics together and have a different cut towards presenting that we recently published a book around that in point of care space, then we have a chat show going on right now. And we are working towards other similar initiatives where we are doing innovation innovation lab or doing something which marketers can be part of, in sharing their opinion, feedback and how we, as an industry, we can evolve. So we are actively doing those kinds of initiatives into care.

Harsh Thakkar: 23:02

That's that awesome. Yeah. And if you want to share any of those links for you know, so we can add that in the show notes for the audience to check out. That'd be great. Absolutely. Yeah, this was really great. I don't talk to many people. I don't think I've ever had anybody on the show about this topic. So it was really a lot of learning for me. And I'm sure the audience are going to have something new than the normal episodes that I do. So thank you so much for your time to come on to the show. Where can people find with your connect with you or learn more about what you're doing?

Kamya Elawadhi: 23:37

So I'm I am available on LinkedIn to connect our website, we do have our immediate connections with different team members, including me. So those are two spots where I can be reached out.

Harsh Thakkar: 23:51

All right, and before we wrap this up any any final thoughts that you want to add? For the audience listening or anything you want to share before we wrap this up?

Kamya Elawadhi: 24:01

I think one message that I wanted and I thought you know, I will speak about is something about how I have evolved over time and what has helped me evolve over time. I started reading a lot and that reading really helped me and transform me who I am right now. So I spent 30 minutes every day to talk read about industry to read about what's happening around in the category itself. And that has really pushed me forward, sideways forward. I think that is something that I would want to leave as a final thought for listeners because that is something that has helped me and I feel that it can help marketers as well. Considering that we always look at three year plan five year plan if you're reading something which is absolutely available right now, which can impact your five year plan. Please go ahead and read spend that 30 minute really it's life changing thing?

Harsh Thakkar: 25:01

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I got into reading mostly during COVID. I never did much of reading before that. But during COVID, I did a lot because I got the extra hour, two hours from the commuting that I didn't have to do. And you know, plus also my son was born during COVID. So I had a lot of times where I was up at night, watching the monitor while he was sleeping, I obviously had to, I didn't want to be on the devices all day. So I was like, Okay, I need to stop looking at my computer and look at a book. And then I picked up and it was hard at first. But after a week or two, I just started, you know, picking up different topics. And, and another hack that I got from one of my friends here is if you are not sure about which book or author you want to read, be good. You can always go and buy a book on Amazon, I'm sure Amazon's done a terrific job of sending you the book within 48 hours. But you can also go to a public library and just get a bunch of books. That's what I do. I have in California and also in North Carolina, I have the library card. So I go and just buy get 15-20 books, I just scan through them. And if I don't like it, I returned. If I do, then I'll invest in buying the money for that author. So that's just a hack I learned from my friend.

Kamya Elawadhi: 26:23

I am thinking about creating a community library at my home where kids can come and be a have a repository of books, whoever is not reading or can change, or return and recycle. So we are considering opening that shortly. So I'm I'm hoping to start that by next summer.

Harsh Thakkar: 26:46

Yep. Yeah, I have. I haven't met a single person who has said that reading is not good for them. So yeah, definitely.

Kamya Elawadhi: 26:56

It has changed my life evolved me so much.

Harsh Thakkar: 26:59

Yep. Thank you so much, Kamya. I really enjoyed this conversation. And I can't wait for the audience to hear this as well. Thank you.

Kamya Elawadhi: 27:09

Thank you so much Harsh, have a great day.

Harsh Thakkar: 27:12

Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Check out the show notes in the description for a full episode summary with all the important links. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.