Virtual Expo Advances UCB’s Digital Transformation Journey

 
At UCB, our digital transformation ambition is to amplify the power of scientific innovation to create sustainable value, ensuring patients can live the lives they choose. To further ignite this ambition, teams united in a week-long Expo event with a focus on:

• Empowering our digital mindset
• Using data and technology with purpose
• Partnering for a greater impact

Open to colleagues globally, the event aimed to drive adoption, implementation and engagement of digital transformation activities, tools and processes.

Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development Solutions, Iris Loew-Friedrich, kicked off the event with a panel session of key stakeholders across UCB embedded in our digital journey.  She emphasized the importance of continued digitalization through collaborative efforts internally and externally. UCB has recognized leveraging digital throughout the business is not a choice, but a necessity to enhance business performance and produce new value propositions.

The #3FOR1 Expo was organized by three teams within UCB who each have a key role to play in our digital transformation. While each are distinct, Technology Transformation Implementation, Transversal Patient Experience, and Digital Care Transformation collaborate across projects and initiatives to achieve one universal goal: to deliver enhanced performance and to explore new ways of doing business, resulting in increased Patient Value.

One of those initiatives highlighted during the Expo was our Bonebot, an artificial intelligence (AI) based fracture identification tool which detects the presence of “silent” or asymptomatic fractures in the spine. This session emphasized how digitization using artificial intelligence can help fulfill an unmet need, enabling diagnosis and treatment earlier in the treatment journey, potentially reducing the co-morbidities associated with osteoporosis.

A highlight of the Expo was keynote Ted Talk presented by Dave deBronkart Chief Patient Officer for PocketHealth, aka. “ePatient Dave”. As his own life’s journey with cancer gave to the rise of his empowerment as a patient, his key messages included the importance of listening and working together with patients. His book “Let Patients Help” highlights the importance of working with the customer rather than sitting in the ivory tower working for the customer.

As a patient-centered organization, we firmly believe that cross-functional initiatives such as the #3FOR1 Expo help us to broaden our focus from clinical efficacy to better understand the holistic patient experience, widening the gap on how we can truly engage and serve patients. While we address the biological impact of a diagnosis, we know we must look at the entire journey to truly understand the care gaps.

The virtual event concluded with, “A Toast to U!”, with Executive Committee Member and Head of PV Immunology & US Solutions, Emmanuel Caeymaex and Mike Branson, Head of the UCB Chief Data Officer and Head of SSI. Highlighting prioritized projects in 2021 and upcoming initiatives for 2022, the Expo offered colleagues many opportunities to engage, network, share best practices and learn. Throughout the Expo, colleagues interacted with leaders in the field who are true pioneers in digital transformation. The impressive four-day event held 7,000+ individual session registrations and 4,000+ unique session attendees spanning all UCB business units.