Setting the Stage

Chairperson’s Opening Address

Speaker: Jerry Barsz, SVP, Business Development, Pillsy

In an eyeforpharma session dedicated to Advances in Customer Engagement, Jerry Barsz, Pillsy SVP, Business Development, opened with a twist.

• First, he politely yet firmly dismissed the fact that all it takes to make it in this industry is experience. (For the record, that included downplaying his own 20+ years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.)
• Next he urged all attendees to set aside their smart phones and engage with the day’s speakers. After all, he added tongue-in-cheek, the morning topic was Advances in Customer Engagement. “So, let’s engage,” he cried!

Keeping It Real

Experience, Barsz said, is only as valuable as the tangible ideas it helps you develop. “We’re getting ready to change the industry based on ideas that will move us toward more and better value. These may be innovations you’re not even thinking about yet. For many of us, that’s a big part of eyeforpharma,” he said.

As an example of how experience leads to innovation, Barsz turned to the company he works for, Pillsy. “Experience told us that people forget to take their medication. We have adherence issues in our country and globally,” he explained. “But experience didn’t supply a solution; data only showed us the problem,” he added.

So Pillsy initiated customer engagement – to define a tangible solution. And the result is a Bluetooth enabled cap for oral medicines that communicates with a smartphone app. When you take the medicine bottle cap off, it alerts the app that you took your medicine. If you don’t take the cap off, the app knows you didn’t take your medicine and you receive a reminder message.

“Now I’m not up here to pitch Pillsy. What I am pitching is an innovation that’s made a tangible change in our industry. So, experience is great, but only if it helps you know your patient and walk away with a tangible idea,” Barsz summed up.

Stay Engaged

Part two of Barsz presentation involved engagement. “I look around during different sessions and I see a lot of people on computers and cell phones. But in reality, you’re here to engage with the speakers. Pull out their ideas and learn from their experience,” Barsz said.

While his comment was initially directed to early morning eyeforpharma session attendees, it’s a good approach for the coming year…until eyeforpharma 2019. If you have a chance to interact with our industry’s thought leaders, do it. Engage! It’s a significant step toward knowing your patient…and delivering real value.