“Digital solutions save lives”

Michael Schmelmer, what sparks your interest in digitalization?
Throughout my career, technology has always fascinated me – from my studies in aerospace engineering to my time at a high-tech company before, and to my different positions at Boehringer Ingelheim. Within the technology sphere, digitalization is the most exciting field by far. Digital technology is changing everything – not only the way we work, but also the way entire industries function and last but not least our lives as consumers, citizens, or patients. That’s why even those in management positions have to continuously deepen their understanding of digital technology.

How will digitalization change the healthcare industry?
For pharmaceutical companies, innovation has always been the most important part of their business model. Digitalization is also about innovating – by leveraging digital technology. But digitalization is also changing the way innovation is happening. We are experiencing different dynamics and cycles of innovation.

How Exactly?
I think, datafication might be an even better term for what we are witnessing. Turning various aspects of our lives into computerized data and analyzing it to gain valuable information will be the real game changer. At BI, we store huge amounts of highly valuable data, which we are already applying and analyzing responsibly – and there is so much more to discover. Exciting times lie ahead!

How does Boehringer Ingelheim adapt to these changes?
We have various strategies in place: We promote digitalization initiatives across regions and functions. The goal is to help each other and bring digital innovators across BI together. And in our digital lab BI X, we test and develop our own digital ideas.

Can you give an example of how you’re already applying data analytics?
Sure! At BI X, we are working on several initiatives which use Natural Language Processing as a powerful tool to extract insights from speech or text data. Apart from automatically analyzing free text to extract relevant information for different use cases, we are investigating the possibility to use speech as a biomarker. Changes in the brain which can be triggered by diseases influence the characteristics of speech. While humans hardly recognize these changes in early stages of the disease, digital tools can detect such anomalies using Machine Learning algorithms.

What are the benefits for patients?
Firstly, the diseases can be recognized much earlier, buying patients valuable time. Furthermore, analyzing speech is quicker, cheaper and less painful than most of the standard medical examinations used today. In this area, BI X is collaborating with experts like linguists, neuroscientists and physicians.

Is such a collaboration with external partners common for BI?
Yes, it all comes down to partnerships. Especially in the field of digitalization, there are hardly any companies that can oversee every aspect. That’s why we are continuously looking for partners that complement our capabilities. Now the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund has started investing in early stage digital health startups. We hope that the fund’s investments will provide us with new market insights and help us identify potential partners.

What are the next steps for digitalization at Boehringer Ingelheim?
A decisive next step is to further increase our hunting for digital talents. We have to promote the interesting positions we are offering even more strongly. Healthcare is an area where employees can really make an impact. In other industries, digital technologies may help to sell more or better products. But in the healthcare industry, digital solutions save lives.