Complex data curation and lack of knowledge on patient care settings and behaviors are among the key barriers to widespread adoption of real world data in life sciences, according to the results of a recent survey commissioned by Komodo Health and conducted by Frost & Sullivan. The survey, which was conducted anonymously among 300 professionals across Commercial, Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), and Clinical Development business units, revealed that organizations are still struggling with the cumbersome process of retrieving and cleaning mounds of disjointed health data.

Key impediments to effectively using real-world data and technology reported by respondents include:

• Complex data curation: The majority of Life Science teams have to purchase data from four different data providers to gain the depth and diversity of insights they need.
• Time investment: Approximately 70% of teams spend six or more months transforming data into a usable state to extract insights. Across all teams, the average was seven months.
• Heavy reliance on consultants: Approximately 50% of life sciences teams rely on at least four consultants to help them integrate disparate datasets into their systems and/or conduct analyses. More than half (53%) of clinical development teams at the largest companies ($1 billion+) report they rely on consultants for analysis, with more than a quarter (27%) engaging six or more.
• Internal data expertise and siloed teams: When asked to rate a list of notorious hurdles to insights, commercial teams indicated the varying levels of internal data expertise required to conduct analyses was the most significant challenge. Siloed teams (27%) and the inability to make quick decisions (24%) were among the most significant challenges to effectively using data and technology.
• Data integration and quality limitations: For HEOR and clinical development teams, when asked to share their greatest barriers to insights, “Data Management” topped the list (39% and 41%, respectively), along with data analysis/interpretation, at 32% and 36% respectively. Clinical development teams reported data quality as a top challenge (26%).

When asked about challenges specific to their roles in the product life cycle:

• Commercial teams reported the most difficult insights to obtain are knowing the care setting in which therapy is prescribed (56%), identifying patients at the appropriate time to enable timely HCP engagement (52%), and understanding patient “drop-offs”/therapy discontinuations (51%)
• The most significant challenges for HEOR teams include linking claims to specialty datasets (59%), managing data procurement and legal processes (58%), and merging different data sources into a usable dataset (56%). HEOR professionals report that genomics/biomarker, chargemaster, and payer-cost data are the three most challenging insights to obtain.
• More than half (55%) of clinical development teams reported identifying patients from racial or ethnic minority populations as a top challenge, and 53% reported identifying the healthcare providers treating them as equally difficult, making it difficult to increase clinical trial diversity.

“This report exposes the depth of impact the industry grapples with to harness the power of real-world data and the direct link from these challenges to patient lives,” said Greg Caressi, Senior Vice President, Frost & Sullivan. “The insight-generation timelines and pain points detailed in the survey are preventing Life Sciences teams across the product life cycle from getting the data they need to conduct research quickly, deliver therapies to patients who need them, and then measure the impact of those treatments.”