The pharmaceutical sector is undergoing a significant transformation. The sector, which has historically been sluggish to accept new technologies, is going through changes due to the development of various technologies. Innovation in the pharma business is being sparked by rising investments, the expansion of technological companies, growing inter-organizational cooperation, and a supportive regulatory framework.

D2 Solutions is one such company that is leading this trend with its various innovative solutions in the pharmaceutical industry. Their work empowers healthcare leaders through their unique combination of SaaS solutions and deep consulting expertise.

Dean Erhardt, President & CEO of D2 Solutions, was with the CEOViews team to share their experience on how they are empowering healthcare businesses.

Business with a mission

Before starting D2 solutions, Dean worked as a consultant for pharmaceutical companies. His experiences and feedback from multiple pharmaceutical manufacturers made it clear to him that there were significant challenges in the prescription process, particularly with specialty medications.

D2 Solutions is one such company that is leading this trend with its various innovative solutions in the pharmaceutical industry.

From services supporting pharmacy operations to patient-facing customer support, D2 Solutions recognized substantial opportunities to mitigate and, often, remove many of the friction points in the prescription process. He felt that technology could be leveraged to accomplish this objective. Ultimately, patient care getting the proper access to the prescriptions needed by patients at the right time and at the right price is at the heart of everything they do at D2 Solutions.

Overcoming challenges

D2 Solutions addresses the problems its clients are struggling with through technology. Many market participants struggle with legacy systems that cannot be easily adapted to provide consumer-oriented solutions. In addition, D2 Solutions’ customers are faced with the increasing challenge of finding qualified personnel and addressing blistering wage inflation. D2 Solutions addresses these challenges head-on with technology-based solutions focused on Compliance Tools, Patient Engagement Platforms (built on gaming technology), and automating Benefit Verification. Transforming these functions to technology-driven solutions is a direct result of listening and responding to the requests of their client partners.

Breeding innovation in healthcare

It is evident that innovation has significantly transformed how business is conducted across industries. However, technology adaptation in the healthcare delivery system has yet to keep pace with other market segments. Over the last ten years, D2 Solutions has heard from its clients that manual processes are no longer acceptable solutions they have learned that their patients are consumers who really want an Amazon-type of experience.

The ultimate customers (i.e., patients) desire and deserve a healthcare delivery system that provides a more dynamic consumer experience. Their experience in healthcare should not be sub-standard compared to any other interaction within their daily experience. D2 Solutions incorporates technology to enable a more consumer-friendly service that can reduce friction regarding how patients get started on specialty medications, including educating them, so they stay on their medications over the full course of therapy; this effectively produces the best clinical outcome for patients.

Adding further to how they were able to bring innovations to the industry, Dean said, “It may sound simple, but we identified many high-volume, low-value activities that ranged from challenging pharmacies on efficiently staying accredited to enabling technology to drive patient engagement. We sought ways to automate processes key to facilitating better pharmacy and call center operations, resulting in more timely prescription processing and fulfillment to include notifications and alerts”. In addition, they looped the patient into the process, treating them like the consumer they are. D2 Solutions’ technology improvements have evolved, focusing on driving involvement, efficiencies, and expectations of all parties from manufacturers to prescribers, to payers, to pharmacies, and ultimately to patients so they can receive and can begin their medication treatment faster and with fewer obstacles.

Playing with their strengths

From the time of its inception, D2 Solutions has earned itself a great reputation in the market. Their chief strength comes from the team D2 Solutions has been able to assemble a team that brings a unique combination of experience and diversity. First, D2 Solutions’ team is a group of operational experts not just people who can come up with good ideas, but people who have been in the trenches, who have had operational and P&L responsibility, and who know how to deliver results.

Second, their unique position of working with stakeholders across the industry enables them to see what is needed within a single vertical and also what might be necessary for that vertical to be more successful in working across industry stakeholders.

Third, they bring significant intellectual capital to every discussion. Their team currently includes 14 pharmacists, 12 members with other advanced degrees, and more than 20 outside industry experts who can evaluate a situation from a variety of angles and determine both the strategic and operational elements of how to best move forward.

Upcoming technologies/trends

Technology advancements have changed how the world behaves, and this will continue in the future. Answering our question on what they think is the industry’s future, Dean said, “Many of our recent conversations with clients and prospects are not unique to healthcare. It is about a problem that’s plaguing all industry sectors. It revolves around labor including labor shortages, the cost of personnel, and high turnover with a direct impact upon providing goods and services”.

As everyone knows, there is no room for error in healthcare. But systems are stretched, and this is taking a toll upon the key workers and support staff required to keep healthcare delivery on pace. In fact, already a concern, the labor situation has exacerbated the need for technology-based solutions to streamline operations and reduce the burden on staff. Recognizing that this situation has created a need, D2 Solutions has responded and is pleased to offer a modular, technology-enabled solution that can seamlessly integrate with existing legacy systems to alleviate much of the performance stress that is being endured by healthcare teams.

As D2 Solutions introduces new solutions, their clients/partners continue challenging them for more feature functions. Further, their consulting business is continually asked to solve difficult issues faced by pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacies, call centers, hospital systems, and others. Being challenged to solve such issues, D2 continues to evolve by defining and developing more innovative market solutions.