In this blog, Matt Brown (Senior Vice President, Konovo) reflects on the surge of Real World Data (RWD), the associated challenges and what the future looks like.
With over two decades in healthcare data collection, Matt has seen firsthand the impact of connecting insights. He explains why combining RWD with RWE and the wider healthcare ecosystem is key to closing evidence gaps and improving patient outcomes.
Here are Matt’s views on the current situation for RWD and how life sciences can overcome the challenge of not just more data but richer insights.
The Surge in Real World Data
Over the past decade, Real World Data (RWD) has become one of the most valuable resources in life sciences. From electronic health records and claims data to registries and wearables, the quantity and accessibility of RWD data has evolved at a rapid pace.
However, despite a huge surge in the data available, integrating the insights is a key issue and siloed data sources and disconnected methodologies have led to an incomplete view. Often RWD alone has gaps in depth, context and validation–and it cannot translate into better decision-making.
One insight source alone can’t provide the full picture. You need multiple perspectives, inputs, methods and you need to connect them. Combining RWD with Real World Evidence (RWE) is what brings the data to life. While RWD tells us what’s happening, it’s the primary intelligence from patients, HCPs and the wider healthcare ecosystem that adds the essential context behind the actions. That’s the secret to generating richer insights and more meaningful decisions.
- Eliminate manual friction points.
- Shorten turnaround times.
- Support faster business decision-making.
What’s driving this shift? Researchers face growing pressure to deliver strategic insights faster—without losing the rigor that makes them meaningful. In healthcare, that means preserving context, nuance, and trust. Qualitative AI helps remove manual bottlenecks, turning lengthy interviews and long analysis cycles into faster, more actionable outcomes.
Why Connecting the Dots Matters
The future of RWD and RWE is grounded in our ability to connect the dots. This involves integrating retrospective evidence with real-time experiences of patients, clinicians, and the wider healthcare ecosystem.
It is not just an infrastructure challenge. It’s about changing the way we approach RWD and RWE and how we extract the most value. We must move from seeing data collection as a transactional exercise to thinking more holistically.
At Konovo, we are bridging RWD and RWE with lived patient and HCP experiences to create a more agile, connected research ecosystem—one that’s faster, smarter, and ultimately more focused on what really matters: improving outcomes and delivering impact where it counts.
Rethinking Participant Engagement
While the technical infrastructure behind RWD has evolved, engaging the right patients and physicians remains one of the biggest difficulties in real world studies. Outside of the top 20 more straightforward health conditions, real world research becomes far more fragmented and complex. Too often, studies rely on goodwill— with clinicians filling in lengthy forms during their already stretched schedules.
This goodwill alone isn’t sustainable. That’s why at Konovo we are hot on the pulse of conducting studies with HCPs to continuously understand their work life environment and pressures and how best to engage with them.
Data collection should fit around people, and not the other way around. It is important to invest in mobile-first, user-friendly tools and the application of AI to allow for easy, in-the-moment data capture via smartphones and voice notes. This reduces the burden for participants while preserving the depth and quality of insights.
Taking an in-depth approach to profiling participants is also key by taking the time to understand their backgrounds and interests in advance. So, when we do reach out, we get right to the heart of the matter—maximising relevance, minimising friction, and improving both response rates and insight quality.
A Connected Research Ecosystem is the Future
There is a vast amount of RWD available to us. We must now look at how we make best sense of it. The Konovo platform seamlessly combines secondary data with primary insights, reaching all key audiences, so that we can provide a clearer, faster view of the market.
As we continue to break down silos and improve how we connect, engage, and learn, we move closer to a model of research that reflects the real world—and evolves patient care and outcomes for the better.
