Sanofi Diabetes: Using Digital Technology and Gamification to Improve Patient Experience and Adherence

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EXCERPTS

Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, contended that the pharmaceutical industry was moving away from pay-for-product and toward reimbursements keyed to patient outcomes. He was in favour of using digital technologies with drug treatments to improve their effectiveness. Under his reign, Sanofi became one of the more active companies in adding services and devices to enhance patients' use of particular products. The expectations of the patients from healthcare companies were rising and they now wanted competitive collaboration between all healthcare organizations to ultimately expedite innovation in the delivery of new solutions to health crises. Moreover, healthcare service providers and players wanted to not only reduce costs but also know for sure that the treatments they were using were getting the desired results.

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In February 2009,Sanofilaunched its first YouTube channel named GoInsulin. The channel featured testimonial videos and links to the companion website, GoInsulin.com.In the Go Insulin channel, patients could volunteer to be interviewed and share their experience with insulin and diabetes. Sanofi had disabled the video commenting function on the YouTube channel. People who registered online or called a toll free number (1-866-GO-INSULIN) for more information receiveda free meal planning guide....

As part of its education and coaching initiative for patients, Sanofi launched the 'Go Meals' iPhone app in November 2009(Refer to Exhibit V for an image of 'Go Meals' app). The app was designed to help people living with diabetes, particularly patients suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease due to diabetes, to make healthy food choices. However, anyone whowas interested could use this app to track the nutritional content of their meals....

Sanofiworked withAgaMatrix to co-develop intelligent solutions in diabetes care in a bid to simplify the diabetes management experience for patients as well as healthcare providers. It had developed an exclusive suite of blood glucose monitoring solutions designed to be synergistic with the rest of its diabetes treatment portfolio....

Continuing with its digital initiatives, Sanofistarted its experimentation with gamification in 2013. Gamification was the application of game elements and game design techniques to non-game problems. It was a way of using technology to be more engaging by giving the user certain actions to complete in return for rewards

Children between ages six and 13 with Type 1 diabetes were expected to take on increasing responsibility in testing and logging their own blood glucose, but many of them viewed this as a chore. It was not easy for children to get up and leave the classroom to test their blood sugar every day by pricking their finger. Research revealed that only 15% of these children achieved their blood glucose targets....

According to the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit Report in 2014, 94.2% of infants, children, and young people with diabetes did not receive all of the care processes recommended by the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). This prompted Sanofi to once again work with Ayogo Health to develop a gaming app to improve health outcomes in juvenile diabetics by improving their level of understanding about the disease.....

Industry observers praised Sanofi's efforts in gamification with some saying that there was a need for such games as children found regular blood glucose monitoring very difficult to accept and integrate in their daily routines, and this sometimes led to a lot of tension in families. They felt that the games helped children achieve better glycemic control, which reduced the risk of their developing serious complications in later life....

Analysts felt that while patient centricity was firmly on the agenda of pharmaceutical companies, there were still questions on what true patient centricity was and how companies like Sanoficould translate the intent to align more with action.

Exhibit I:Key Financials of Sanofi

Exhibit II:Sanofi's Sales by Business Segments

Exhibit III:Sanofi's Diabetes Portfolio

Exhibit IV:Sanofi's Services to Empower Patients and Drive Behavioural Change

Exhibit V:Sanofi's 'Go Meals'App

Exhibit VI:Elements of Gamification

Exhibit VII:Some Companies that have Developed Preventative Healthcare Games

Exhibit VIII:Images from the 'Monster Manor' Game

Exhibit IX:An Image of the 'Mission T1D' Game