Introducing ExtraMile by YourTechDiet! Tune in for an exciting interview with top industry experts about new tech, marketing strategies, and expert knowledge.
Today, we are thrilled to have Harshit Jain, MD, Founder and Global CEO of Doceree, a groundbreaking platform that enhances healthcare marketing through innovative technology.
With a rich background as a physician and extensive experience in healthcare advertising, Harshit shares his inspiring journey from medicine to entrepreneurship.
Discover how Doceree is transforming HCP-patient engagement and addressing critical challenges in the healthcare industry with purpose-driven solutions.
1. What inspired you to transition from being a medicine practitioner to focusing on healthcare marketing innovation? Can you share your journey and the key moments that shaped your career?
Ans: My parents fondly recall that ever since I was a child, my clear answer to the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” was always to become a doctor. Maybe as a child, the doctor’s white coat attracted me. However, as I grew up, I took my decision seriously completed my medical degree from Northwestern University in Chicago in 2006 and commenced my journey as a practising physician for eight years. While those eight years gave me ample opportunities to explore the ‘medical’ side of healthcare, I started to notice gaps that remained unaddressed in-patient engagement and communication. With limited use of latest technology and creative solutions in the industry at that time, I wondered why not go beyond my traditional physician’s role and explore the ‘creative side’ of healthcare. This indeed led to my conventional transition to healthcare advertising. Although some industry peers raised their eyebrows at my sudden transition, I decided to follow my instincts.
During this journey, I held several leadership positions at McCann Health across Asia, Europe, and the United States, winning some of the biggest industry awards for my marketing campaigns, including the Cannes Lions Grand Prix for Good & India’s first Black Pencil by D&AD. As I gradually began to understand about the greater impact purpose-driven marketing can have, I decided to combine my knowledge of medicine and marketing through entrepreneurship with Doceree’s launch in 2020, to address rising healthcare costs and challenges in HCP-patient engagement.
2. Doceree has achieved 100% year-over-year growth and HIPAA certification. Moreover, the company has launched the first HCP-only Data Marketplace. What is your viewpoint for this success?
Ans: Started in 2020, Doceree is currently present in 25 countries across 4 continents with over 200 pharmaceutical clients (including world’s top 8 brands), already. Witnessing this expansion, our primary motive is to nudge fellow industry peers to go beyond ‘short term gains’ and introduce solutions to long withstanding healthcare problems, for a long-term positive impact on both – business and patient outcomes.
Being world’s first global network of healthcare professionals (HCPs) only platforms, Doceree’s innovative United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patented technology empowers pharmaceutical brands to deliver relevant messaging directly to HCPs during critical points of care. While our competitors continued to depend on conventional digital advertising tactics, lacking the precision and speed required to make swift and correct treatment decisions, Doceree decided to change the traditional framework and contribute to the evolution of the healthcare advertising industry with its high-end technology solutions. Through our innovative mindset, we went beyond the conventional business goals our competitors were chasing and instead bridged the long withstanding gaps in HCP-patient engagement and reduced the rising healthcare costs by bringing much-needed efficacy in healthcare advertising. As I look back at our journey since Doceree’s inception, I believe our commitment to be driven by ‘purpose’ before ‘profits’ has helped get the reputation we have achieved.
3. You have received many prestigious awards to date, how do these achievements reflect your mission in the healthcare industry?
Ans: To speak as an entrepreneur and as a leader in the healthcare industry, acknowledgements like such always act as a catalyst for better performance delivery and indeed pushes one to test their potential further. The recognition and love received in the last 16 years does somewhere validate the impact we’ve attempted to make in healthcare communication. For me, It was always imperative to ensure that Doceree doesn’t limit its expertise to becoming just another new company offering advertising solutions, but solutions that serve as a means to enhance patient outcomes, improve healthcare workflows, and create a smoother treatment delivery experience for HCPs. These achievements inspire me and my team to keep focusing on quality and real-world results over mere profit.
4. How do you ensure your work positively impacts patient care and maintain high standards of data security and privacy?
Ans: Certified by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and holding a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Doceree understands how critical data is in an industry like healthcare, where life-impacting decisions are taken almost every day.
Through our patented technology, ESPIYANTM, Doceree empowers pharmaceutical brands to advertise their prescription drugs directly to HCPs with messages tailored to their specialties and patients’ medical histories, enabling messaging to become more relevant and support HCPs to make informed decisions in real time during critical points of care. From delivering real-time personalized messaging about a medication suited for a patient’s unique condition to providing real-time update on co-pay affordability programs they qualify for, this technology-powered framework not only enriches HCP-patient clinical engagement and treatment adherence but also reduces the rising healthcare costs caused by on-ground marketing and sales initiatives.
However, the positive impact of this technology is not limited to patients. As a former physician, I’ve witnessed the mental fatigue that inefficient advertisements can cause for doctors while they provide care. With this in mind, Doceree’s technology aims to make advertisements for HCPs more relevant and timelier, delivering them precisely when they need them the most. This ultimately ‘nudges’ them towards informed decision-making with greater precision and speed, leading to a higher quality treatment delivery experience for doctors, globally.
5. Can you explain what programmatic marketing is? And how important do you think it is to healthcare and its marketers?
Ans: In simpler terms, programmatic marketing, or programmatic advertising, is a method that uses automated systems to buy and sell digital ad space. It helps advertisers show their messages on the right platforms to reach their target audience, while also allowing those platforms to increase their revenue. To articulate it further in terms of healthcare advertising, programmatic messaging allows advertisers to digitally reach HCPs basis their digital footprint, medical speciality, preferences or behaviour on digital platforms. Considering that HCPs, like any other individuals, spend a significant amount of time on digital platforms for their information needs and treatment delivery (by logging into point-of-care platforms), it is more cost-effective and relevant for advertisers to reach them in real-time on endemic channels. By delivering messages that align with the real-time context while HCPs are actively providing care, advertisers can enable faster communication at scale. This approach also allows for tracking campaign results, such as script lift outcomes, which is not possible with traditional marketing.
6. How do you see the role of AI and machine learning evolving in healthcare marketing?
Ans: As a marketer and entrepreneur, it’s crucial to stay alert to new innovations and trends that enhance customer experiences. Observing the significant growth in consumer industries due to AI, I recognize that the healthcare sector also needs a “smarter way” to achieve precision and speed for smoother operations. By effectively leveraging AI for predictive analytics, I’ve seen a remarkable improvement in targeting healthcare professionals with precision and personalized outreach. In 2022, our Doceree platform noted a 32% increase in script lift when pharma manufacturers utilized AI-driven, trigger-based messaging. This clearly demonstrates AI’s ability to boost engagement and enhance patient outcomes when tailored to the unique needs of healthcare professionals.
Moreover, by using Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithms to analyze large volumes of data from point-of-care platforms and digital marketing campaigns, we have successfully developed more effective communication strategies and patient-centric messaging for our partners. For instance, Doceree co-pay, an AI-powered solution, delivers updated information about individual patients’ eligibility for co-pay coupons and delivers the same to the right HCP as and when they are interacting with patients. This approach not only revolutionizes healthcare marketing but also improves treatment adherence due to patients being apprised about the right financial assistance program at the right time. Going beyond ‘advertising’ and exploring its role in patient care, recent studies have discovered that AI has the potential to detect diseases as complex as cancer even before they manifest in the body, making diagnosis and treatment of such complex diseases more simple and less costly than ever before. Additionally, AI can play a critical role in fast-tracking clinical trials by tracking patient data in a regulatory compliant manner, easing HCPs efforts to identify the right patient for the right clinical trial.
7. What has been the most challenging experience for you as an entrepreneur? How did you overcome it?
Ans: With nearly two decades of experience in the healthcare industry, I have witnessed the scepticism surrounding digital transformation, particularly concerning the crucial role of patient and healthcare professional data in ensuring seamless treatment delivery. Before the pandemic, it was quite challenging to challenge the industry’s traditional mindset and encourage the adoption of new innovations. However, when the pandemic struck in 2020, the situation changed dramatically, forcing everyone to shift their communication to digital platforms. This unexpected shift provided Doceree with an opportunity to redefine communication in healthcare advertising and move the industry’s focus from merely pursuing numbers to emphasizing meaningful, qualitative outcomes for lasting impact. By introducing our technology-powered connected ecosystem within the HCP-only network, we nudged pharmaceutical companies to shift from traditional workflows and revive their marketing efforts through digital channels. Despite this initial progress, the industry took some time to adapt to the pandemic-induced changes. Recognizing this, Doceree gradually expanded its influence, encouraging stakeholders to embrace the positive potential of digital solutions. Nevertheless, with over 2 million HCPs now connected with us globally and the swift advancement of technology in healthcare delivery operations, I can confidently say that we’ve brought our vision to life.
8. How do you see the healthcare marketing landscape changing in the next few years? What role do you hope to play in that evolution?
Ans: As pandemic has been one of the biggest catalysts for change in the healthcare industry, I am confident that inception of newer technologies and greater advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) will aid the global healthcare marketing landscape evolve towards greater personalization and data-driven decision making. Considering Doceree too needs to continuously adapt to the evolving dynamics of the healthcare industry, I hope that Doceree’s credibility will be measured by our ability to continue as industry’s first in introducing innovative solutions aimed at making HCP-patient engagement efficient and healthcare more accessible and affordable through effective communication. By establishing Doceree as a trusted roadmap for HCPs engagement, we aspire to continue having deeper understanding of HCP needs and preferences and facilitate campaigns that improve patient outcomes and contribute to a more efficient and effective healthcare ecosystem.
9. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those looking to innovate in the healthcare sector?
Ans: For any new entrepreneur, practicing or aspiring, it is important to first have a clear purpose that makes a real difference. Identify a problem that needs a solution, integrate it into your vision and find a way to tackle it that truly stands out. This is imperative for one to make informed business decisions, attract the right talent, and connect with customers without presumptions.
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