Recruiting top tech talent from across the life sciences industry, and beyond, is imperative to support a digital-first culture within medtech and pharma.
Primary research for this work during multiple roundtable discussions highlighted the need to attract technology specialists to the healthcare industry. The idea of hiring a ‘digital health generalist’ vs a team of specialists was also discussed by leaders and experts engaged in the research. Whilst the generalist reflects the profile of the digital health expert with knowledge of all stages of the product life cycle, from ideation through to commercialisation, such a profile is very rare given the nascency of the space.
Rather, the life sciences industry must hire teams of specialists with a suite of competencies that compliment each other to drive the digital agenda forward.
Key pillars
The digital health skills framework is anchored around four key pillars. Each pillar subsumes a core set of macro skills, that is a broad set of skills and expertise.
Digital R&D
- R&D leadership
- Product design and user experience
- Software development, programming and coding
- Data science and artificial intelligence
- Product development (hardware)
- Information governance & management, risk assessment and cybersecurity
- Evidence generation, study design and conduct
Domain Knowledge
- Digital health domain knowledge
- Clinical, medical or life sciences knowledge
- Health system knowledge
- Behavioural and socio - technical knowledge
Commercial & go-to-market
- Market research
- Commercialisation
- Marketing and sales
- Intra and entrepreneurship
- Raising capital/budget allocation
Enablement & Support
- Strategic leadership
- Regulation (regulation knowledge)
- Legal and compliance
- Health economics & outcomes
- Digital health service delivery and implementation skillsRaising capital/budget allocation