An automated compliance system allows PTC to better focus on its mission

SOLUTION

Adopt a one-stop product to help reduce complexity and generate insights

PTC needed to implement a streamlined, intuitive, easy-to-use digital solution that would help the company more efficiently manage its interactions with doctors, patients, organizations and researchers for operations around the globe, boosting confidence and trust along the way. This required a solution that automated these processes and operated seamlessly with compliance.

By bringing together PTC’s business strategy goals, keeping a focus on human-centered experience and seeking the appropriate technology solution, it became clear that Interactions Hub, a PwC product, met those needs — and provided a path to intelligent business and compliance insights.

Goodbye bottlenecks, hello faster decisions

Gaining speedy access to treatments for patients left little time for navigating complex company systems. PTC’s strategy was to engage healthcare providers and launch outreach programs to spur interest and expand research. Tracking myriad details and helping to make sure compliance with an array of laws and industry guidelines was key to success. To get there, PTC needed to save time and money and help its people focus on the core business strategy, all while building trust.

Bringing these programs under one digital system would help clear bottlenecks, boost productivity, reduce costs and help PTC’s employees spend more time analyzing data that could help with business decisions. Importantly, speeding decisions and compliance reviews would boost PTC’s goal to raise the profile of its drugs and have them be used as safely and quickly as possible.

Automating the process without missing a step

When there are hundreds of moving pieces, it’s important to improve existing processes and approval chains to develop something more efficient for those who will use it. Some PTC staff spent 25% of their time with email and paper for approvals and compliance. Reducing time spent on those tasks, not breaking down their process, was the goal. Understanding the procedure chains and improving PTC’s processes were core to success. PwC worked with PTC’s employees to first understand the complex steps and handoffs and then considered how they could use technology to replicate those tasks to make the chain faster, more transparent and compliant.

Making it familiar but easier and faster for a healthcare provider to work with PTC was a must. Imagine the frustration of a doctor trying to get compassionate care use approval for a patient with a rare disease, whose best hope was to try a yet-to-be-approved drug, only to find the system for requesting it to be so cumbersome or confusing that the doctor couldn’t work through it? PTC was determined to make sure that didn’t happen. PwC helped build the PTC external facing portals so that organizations and providers can easily submit compassionate care, educational and research grant requests — and track their status in real time on Interactions Hub.

Low-code, scalable tech gets the job done

PwC built Interactions Hub using Appian — a low-code platform that is purpose-built to digitize complex business processes — to create a streamlined system that fits the way PTC works and grows. With Appian, PwC was able to adapt the system to PTC’s requirements and integrate with other PTC systems substantially faster and at a lower cost than other solutions available. Efficiency didn’t come at the cost of flexibility or user experience. And the tech was easily fitted for the processes and chain of handoffs PTC uses, speeding up the change. For instance, PTC was able to launch its end-to-end speaker program technology in less than eight weeks, whereas just defining requirements for this type of program could often exceed that timeframe.

The agile capabilities of the Appian Low-Code Platform helped PwC instill Interactions Hub with real-time tracking of doctors speaking to their peers about PTC’s drugs. Approval sign-offs were embedded into the workflows for compliance monitoring and risk management. The low-code system allows PTC to be more self-sufficient, and its employees can run custom reports and dig for data without needing outside guidance, thereby reducing IT support and other resource needs. What’s more, the external grant portal operates with a single link but in multiple languages, with translation capabilities so submitters can work in their local language and reviewers can review grant request details — automatically translated as needed.

RESULTS

Mission-focused: connected, agile and compliant

PTC’s adoption of Interactions Hub has cut response time across the board. Employees can now engage healthcare providers and plan and execute meetings and events much faster than ever before. The PwC-designed system eliminated several separate systems that didn’t communicate with each other. The new system also boosts the company’s ability to verify its compliance with a raft of changing federal and state laws and industry guidelines. The solution is seamless and used in every country PTC operates, resolving a massive pain point for biotech and other healthcare companies.

Time that employees had spent reading emails, hunting down responses and creating paper trails is now used to work on high-value programs that help the company achieve its ultimate mission: developing life-changing drugs.