What role does quality assurance play in building better experiences for patients and healthcare professionals?

As a team and as a partner to our clients, our goal is to deliver a product that meets and exceeds expectations and to follow that up with accurate analysis to show the product’s performance. This involves imagining real-world scenarios that a product or service may encounter and ensuring it’s ready for all those possibilities once it goes live. We’re the last line of defense against possible problems.

The essence of quality assurance is thinking through every situation, so nothing that comes up is a surprise. It requires constant attention to detail, an analytical mindset and skills, and a lot of teamwork. With so many moving parts for any project in the complex healthcare landscape, a strong drive for collaboration ensures different perspectives, goals, and needs are accounted for, and the outcome is much better. This has also been an amazing fast track to learning about the pharmaceutical industry.

On any given day I work with project managers, business analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. I also form part of interdisciplinary projects with other colleagues in our Digital Experience Technology team and across our other capabilities—Consulting; Medical; Marketing; and Policy, Access, Value, and Evidence—to continuously improve campaigns and experiences.

How do you use data to optimize omnichannel experiences? 

I have been interested in technology and data from a young age, watching keenly as its use and capabilities increased massively over time. That’s why I chose to pursue a bachelor’s and master’s degree in this area. I’ve been honing those skills for the last 9 years and, during that time, I’ve developed a keen eye for detail and for developing specialized experiences with data.

At Avalere Health, I analyze raw data to find meaning in the chaos, suggesting continuous improvements to ensure we’re in line with our clients’ targets once the project is pushed live.

Meeting and exceeding ADA compliance is essential in the work that we do. By prioritizing accessibility testing, we ensure a seamless user experience that caters to the diverse needs of our end-users, who have varied backgrounds and needs, and who use a wide range of devices. Meticulous configuration that is inclusive of these users is a must.

However, our commitment does not end here. Our clients, prominent pharmaceutical and biotechnology enterprises, allocate substantial financial resources to omnichannel advertising initiatives, including TV and online adverts. Our team collates data from these campaigns, generated through our proprietary in-house tools or third-party applications. These data are subjected to meticulous analysis to ascertain the product’s optimal functionality, culminating in regular reporting that gives a nuanced understanding of the product’s performance metrics.

Data is the new gold—it’s only half the job to mine it; you must keep it secure and make something out of the nuggets. Data compliance is highly important to our teams at Avalere Health and our customers, so we employ strict measures on campaign-generated data to comply with regulators and implement robust security protocols for data storage.

AI is a very hot topic right now. What are your thoughts in this area?

When it come to the complexity and specificity of data quality, a skilled and trained human mind does an incredible job of identifying nuances. With that said, we are always looking for ways to incorporate AI into our work efforts. We have a team of experts across the business who make up our Generative AI Council, dedicated to exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence in all areas of healthcare. This includes internal guidelines and limitations for the use of AI, as well as the opportunities it presents for our clients as we work together to ensure better health outcomes for all.

How are you ensuring Avalere Health continuously innovates with novel technology to meet audience needs?

Healthcare is a hugely impactful area with constantly expanding data affecting massive populations, and the industry develops quickly, so I’m constantly researching and piloting innovative tools to improve our performance.

Much of my role involves learning about new markets or audiences and gaining experience with different tools and the backend of data and software. However, the ultimate goal of leveraging novel technology is to ensure we can deliver for our clients and their stakeholders—patients and healthcare professionals. The most fulfilling day is when we can leverage these tools to provide an error-free product and get acknowledgment from the client.