The Future of Medicine

The coronavirus pandemic uprooted the health care and pharmaceuticals industry, forcing companies to solve new problems and rethink customer service for patients.

Brian Tyler, the CEO of McKesson Corporation was confronted with those challenges as the leader of the largest pharmaceutical distributor in the US and in Western Europe. About a third of North America's pharmaceutical products flow through its facilities every single day.

Here’s are three ways he says the industry will change after the pandemic.

Faster innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic forced industries to innovate quickly.

“The last several months have been really quite impressive to see how fast business can move,” Brian said. “That pace of acceleration, that pace of innovation is just going to continue.”

He cited the rapid scale-up and adoption of telehealth and tele-related medicines and pharmacies as one example of an industry.

Meanwhile, Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions partnered with McKesson to innovate as well.  That included being ready to deliver new therapies and vaccines and delivering PPE to frontline workers and caregivers, said Honeywell SPS president and CEO John Waldron.

More data-driven

Technology and data, and most importantly, the intelligence that can flow from those things, will revolutionize health care, Brian said.

Consider how data is helping McKesson solve a major challenge across the health care industry: Helping patients begin appropriate treatments on time. Often, patients delay or never start the therapies they need. That results in suboptimal health outcomes.

But by leveraging data and technology McKesson can help reach those patients faster, Brian said. That will help them start therapy on time so that they get a better health outcome. Ultimately, that will help provide better care and save the health system money.

Better patient-centric care

Going forward, consumers will want and demand a better customer experience.

According to Brian, patients will want to be treated like a customer and have their data in the format when and where they want it.

“They're just going to really want a more contemporary consumer experience,” Brian said, adding in the next five years the big challenge will be to rewire an industry that has not always been customer or patient centric.

Watch the full Honeywell Tech Forum talk: Brian Tyler in conversation with John Waldron