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Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data has launched ZP Metaverse, a first-of-its-kind healthcare metaverse experience that enhances existing pharmaceutical sales enablement and telemedicine experiences, linking its plant-to-patient digital twin to fuse both B2B and B2C experiences.

The future of pharma tech is patient-centric, and today’s dynamic industry environment has prompted the merger of B2B and B2C experiences to amplify value for the patient. Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data’s award-winning on-ground capabilities combined with its innovative digital and data solutions will enable a connected and more accessible healthcare journey—from plant to patient.

Reimagining the B2B2C healthcare journey in Asia, ZP Metaverse paves the way for a borderless healthcare universe with enhanced capabilities including greater interconnectivity and data integration across the healthcare value chain in a single environment.

The B2C environment was developed in collaboration with Agile software developer and digital transformation consultancy PALO IT, and the environment was built around three user experiences:

1. a healthcare professional (i.e., doctor) conducting consultations
2. a remote patient accessing healthcare services
3. a sales representative taking stock of inventory accompanied by e-detailing and sales data

Reconfiguring How the Healthcare Value Chain Collaborates

An outpatient clinic experience in ZP Metaverse allows for a variety of services, including a real-time virtual consultation and diagnosis, removing the need for long hours of queuing and travelling just to get a first prognosis—especially vital for patients who are immobile or based in remote locations.

There are plans to integrate wearables data and data from Artificial Intelligence-enabled chatbot-based symptoms checker—both of which would allow healthcare professionals (HCPs) to provide patients with more accurate and quicker diagnosis. Patients’ health records are stored and transferred securely on the blockchain that allows non-intrusive, cloud-agnostic data exchange for data security.

ZP Metaverse will also explore integrating Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data’s online pharmacy eZPharmacy and new telemedicine service extension eZHealth, for a seamless end-to-end experience.

For sales representatives, the ZP Metaverse allows them to conduct borderless commercial operations including drug inventory reviews, pricing discussions, as well as e-commerce and analytics operations—all in a ‘gamified’ experience. This allows them to minimise physical travel time and focus on value-added services such as e-detailing and sales strategy for clients.

“ZP Metaverse, fast-tracked by the accelerated digitalisation in the pharma industry, aims to enhance current healthcare experiences beyond the physical boundaries, and help make them more accessible and convenient. The interconnectivity—from plant to patient in ZP Metaverse, brings forth the opportunity to collect richer real-time data across multiple workstreams. This is where the pharma industry, which has been traditionally manual and manpower-heavy, can now rethink the operating model for pharma and how healthcare processes can be made more effective and efficient,” said Daniel Laverick, Chief Digital & Data Officer at Zuellig Pharma.

“PALO IT and Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data share the same philosophy of ‘using tech for good,’ and for us, that means creating new worlds of experiences, like the metaverse, that extend Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data’s mission in keeping healthcare more accessible and affordable. This collaborative partnership is the start for us to recast the mold and set a new precedence in digital healthcare experiences,” said Vincent Desclaux, Managing Director at PALO IT Singapore.

Optimising Warehouse Operations with a Digital Twin

To improve warehouse performance, Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data is linking a digital twin of its warehouse to ZP Metaverse—integrating real-time inventory data from the physical warehouse, and continuously synchronising to ensure that the digital twin always has the most updated inventory information.

Outfitted with drones in the metaverse, the stocktaking and inventory management process can be automated. Products can be remotely monitored and managing personnel will be notified when the temperature of the environment deviates from its usual conditions. With web3 integration, Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data’s eZTracker solution backed by blockchain technology can be integrated for better quality assurance and end-to-end traceability on the supply chain. Pharmaceutical products that might have gone missing or expired can also be traced and recalled.

“Beyond bringing the digital and physical realms of healthcare closer together, what we are addressing with ZP Metaverse is the siloed nature of much of the existing healthcare system, in order to deliver more joined-up or collaborative outcomes for our users,” said Preetham Nadig, Head of Product and Engineering at Zuellig Pharma Digital & Data.

There are also future plans to include cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as accepted payment options for consultations and prescriptions.

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