The ongoing shift from a paper world to an electronic world has been both a blessing and a curse for the pharmaceutical industry. On one hand, the Internet has made available a vast trove of external information and research data that, in the past, had been difficult to tap. A significant downside, though, is that there is a lot more data to be found, stored, and maintained.

Therefore, the pharmaceutical companies and the biotech industry are increasingly turning to knowledge management (KM) to help them succeed. Knowledge Management can improve productivity in the face of an increasingly complex R&D process (the main department of a pharma company), allow the sharing of data and information between different parts of an organization, and enable the sharing of expertise with partnering companies in cases of licensing deals and acquisitions and mergers. 

Knowledge management is a process whereby companies identify, store, share, and reuse their own data, external information, and most important the business knowledge and experience of employees. Knowledge management is not just about technology, but also about implementing new business processes.

Supportive Role of Knowledge Management in Challenges Faced By Pharma Industry

The pharmaceutical industry has the potential to be among the hardest hit by the boomer brain drain. The risk of intellectual capital loss is greatest in enterprises whose success depends heavily on specialized knowledge and a capsule description of the pharmaceutical business. 

Corporations have invested billions of dollars in establishing processes and implementing technologies that enable them to leverage corporate information while avoiding its loss. An obvious danger is that key professional and technical staff may retire or leave for greener pastures, taking with them the knowledge and business information stored in their brains. In a survey by recruitment firm Robert Half International, 55 percent of executives polled said their companies were concerned about losing key staff to retirement in the next five to 10 years. In addition, 78 percent reported that their companies were taking steps to mitigate the effect of the loss of these employees. Some companies forestall the problem by retaining would-be retirees as consultants or part-timers. However, a more permanent solution is to invest in technology that fosters and helps automate the knowledge management process. 

Most pharmaceutical firms are using a variety of technologies and processes to retain and transfer knowledge from their R&D and manufacturing professionals. Typically, a good knowledge management approach includes document management systems and collaborative online workspaces in effect, networked systems that foster the sharing of ideas, experience, and knowledge among colleagues. The backbone for sharing scientific data and other R&D information is the company’s international knowledge management system. 

A knowledge management system is responsible for the integration and delivery of external content and internal scientific data for decision-making. PHPKB is one such knowledge management system that supports the interaction and sharing of information by scientists and researchers throughout the company. 

Although only a handful of new drugs make it to market each year, pharmaceutical companies must carefully track all of their research and supporting documentation to replicate success and to learn from past projects, even failures. It’s not just a matter of gathering the data but analyzing it to spot patterns and trends. A clinical trial can involve thousands of patients nationwide. Knowledge management systems can automatically recognize unexpected results and route them to appropriate people for analysis. They can help save time and ensure that crucial information is not overlooked. A centralized knowledge management system acts as an easily accessible repository that enables us to supply our customers with timely and accurate information on our product.

Knowledge management isn’t limited to the drug development process, this really enables the pharmaceutical salesperson to have an interactive and meaningful conversation with the physician. Plus, the sales staff can review and share comments from physicians. The need to share information doesn’t stop once a drug is developed. Many pharmaceutical companies face the challenge of managing the information that is accessed by their sales representatives in the field. Those sales representatives need to interact with physicians and provide accurate information about the drugs. 

Features of Pharma Knowledge Management System

Document Management

The software should come equipped with document management features and be capable to store documents and records electronically and make them easier to find and manage throughout their life-cycle. PHPKB knowledge management software can benefit any organization small or large to create, store, and manage electronic documents and records in an easy-to-use knowledge base with advanced functionality which makes searching and finding documents and records much easier than on a typically shared drive environment.

Automatic Notifications

Automatic notifications are the communication sent by localists directly to a user. An efficient notification system helps you send real-time updates and reminders to engage your audience with your company. PHPKB knowledge base software not only has an external notification system for end-users but also has an internal notification system for your knowledge base administrators. A pending task notification and review notifications are sent to team members when a task is in staged status. 

Full-Text Search

PHPKB knowledge management software has an incredibly fast & accurate knowledge base search engine that provides full search capabilities to knowledge base users. It searches among categories, articles, attached documents, and custom fields. All searches in your knowledge base run on a full-text search system, which provides extremely fast and incredibly accurate search results. Each article in the search results is ranked based on its relevance i.e. most relevant documents are displayed at the top of search results and words from the search query are highlighted in the search results to ease in searching relevant information.

Audit Log

Event logging feature that tracks who, what, when, and where. This helps admins monitor performance and keep track of potential workflow disruptions. Tracking changes without an event log is easy in a small knowledge base because the changes can be conveyed to the team verbally or through emails. However, keeping track of changes in a large organization with many users is tedious. Therefore, changes made to a specific module in a knowledge management system should be easy to track, so every administrator is aware of the changes made by the account holders. 

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