Healthcare is tapping into digital innovation at a rapid pace with advancements in robotics, telemedicine, digital therapy and real-time monitoring devices in the home.

The opportunity for digital medicine is most notable in two areas: addressing non-adherence to medication and increases in pharma R&D productivity. Medication adherence is a crisis with patients failing to correctly take their medications between 25-50% leading to 125,000 preventable deaths and up to $300 billion in avoidable healthcare costs each year (Journal Managed Care Pharmacy 2017).

This need has launched a new industry focused on connected therapeutic devices and data analytics aspiring to provide reliable data to help track patients and their medication regimes in the home.

On the second, the time to launch is paramount for a Pharma company as a lost day on the market costs a pharmaceutical between $600,000 up to $8 million/day for a blockbuster drug.

To succeed in digital technology many healthcare leaders deep in science with labor forces filled with MDs and PhDs will have to partner on the software side to leverage digital expertise and combine best of breed R&D from both industries.

And we have entered a new era of non-traditional healthcare players entering the field like Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan only increasing the investment, pace and noise in the field of digital disruption.