We have seen the number of digital health-related Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Requests for Information (RFIs) from biopharma and medtech companies increase by over 200% year over year.
Yet despite the high volume of requests, opinions vary on what exactly should go into a digital health RFP and how the process should be executed.
In addition to the inherent complexities of launching an RFP within a large biopharma and medtech company, digital health teams face escalating privacy and security concerns, ever-evolving regulations and global scalability challenges. Needless to say, the process of selecting a digital health partner shouldn’t be taken lightly.
Here at BrightInsight, we’ve received a number of inquiries from our biopharma and medtech customers, asking for help crafting the RFPs and requesting guidance with the overall RFP process. So, we’ve developed and are sharing this comprehensive guide to help you find success in your digital health RFP process.
Think of this guide as an expertly designed “shopping list” to help you determine the main capabilities you need to explore and the criteria you should use to find your digital health partner. By selecting the right criteria and approach, you’ll set your digital initiatives on a path for long-term success.
Completing a digital health RFP is no small feat. That’s why we recommend a multi-step strategy to narrow your potential partners and find the best fit.
PHASE 1:
At the beginning of your RFP, many potential partners may have thrown their hat in the ring. During phase one, you’ll work to objectively evaluate who “checks the boxes” in terms of the most important core competencies and experience.
Focus on:
PHASE 2:
This phase is a deep dive into the key areas where your potential partners need to demonstrate both a deep understanding of the digital health landscape and the expertise to execute on your roadmap.
Examine:
PHASE 3:
Finally, phase three includes a final assessment of the potential partners’ reputations and a conversation around pricing. You'll need to ask the right questions and weigh differences in scope to make a true value comparison.
Consider:
LET'S DIVE DEEPER INTO EACH PHASE
PHASE 1:
Because the digital health space is still relatively young, there’s no guarantee that every company that responds to your RFP has the experience and expertise needed to successfully bring your digital health solutions to market. By asking the right questions in this phase, you’ll easily be able to weed out respondents without the real-world experience required to operate in this complex industry.
Key areas of focus:
Potential partners should be able to speak about their experience with leading biopharma and/or medtech companies. This should include more than just proof of concept work; full-scale releases demonstrate competence in taking projects from concept to launch, and beyond.
Questions to ask:
The ideal digital health partner has achieved success across multiple areas, including products, regions, therapeutic areas and numbers of patients on their platform. Newer startups lack the experience gained from live projects and may be using you to "learn on the job."
Questions to ask:
In the healthcare space, security, privacy and regulatory compliance and controls are paramount. According to IBM's latest "Cost of a data breach" report, the average cost of a data breach globally reached a high of $164 per record in 2022. Healthcare breaches are the most expensive of any industry—and the financial, legal and reputational risks are higher than ever. Mega breaches of 50 to 60 million records cost $387 million in 2022. Potential partners should be able to show proof of certification in the most stringent controls.
Questions to ask:
Please list the ISO standards and other relevant certifications for which your development model is certified, such as:
In this preliminary phase, it’s important to ensure that each partner you’re considering has core competencies that align with your project roadmap, regardless of phase.
Questions to ask:
PHASE 2:
Now that you’ve identified the potential partners that have the core capabilities and experience you need, you can spend phase two comparing the strengths and weaknesses of your remaining candidates. Every potential partner will have standout strengths and a few weaknesses. Consider assigning numeric weights to these questions based on your programmatic needs and score them to help you compare and contrast your potential partners.
It’s important that both the partner’s leadership and the project team assigned to you have deep experience in digital health and a robust understanding of the challenges specific to this highly regulated industry.
Questions to ask:
The launch of a single digital health solution is just the beginning. Whether you’re simply concerned about maintenance and updates, or you’re planning on leveraging your partner platform to continue your digital transformation, it’s important to work with a company that’s in it for the long haul.
Questions to ask:
Many platforms are antiquated, hold siloed data and don’t integrate with other products, let alone with offerings from disparate vendors. Ensure your partner’s platform can easily scale beyond individual products or regions and integrate with the broader healthcare ecosystem.
Questions to ask:
Digital health exponentially increases the amount of data that biopharma and medtech companies generate, potentially growing to include data from tens of millions of patients daily. As the velocity, variety and volume of data increases, transforming data sets into actionable insights becomes critical to informing market strategies and driving product development.
Questions to ask:
PHASE 3:
In this phase, you should have narrowed down your list of potential partners to a few top candidates. This will allow you to fully explore pricing considerations while also doing your due diligence with a final reputation check.
Phase three is the right time to evaluate overall pricing competitiveness. This isn’t always a simple, apples-to-apples comparison, as different partners structure their products and their contracts differently. If two proposals include offerings that are substantially different in scope, you’ll need to price out the incremental work not covered by proposal A to cover the work detailed in proposal B. Likewise, if the two proposals require different amounts of internal support, scope the cost of the internal resourcing needed to do that work. These questions can help you do the right math.
Questions to ask:
It’s important to take the time to double check your finalists’ reputations in the industry. This can be done both by asking questions and doing your own research.
Questions to ask:
