Life science marketers know the pressure: audiences want claims backed by real-world performance, not aspirational messaging. Whether you’re selling a device, diagnostic, SaaS platform, or therapeutic, credibility is now the currency of market success.
But there’s a problem no one talks about openly: most real-world data (RWD) providers cannot link patient outcomes back to a specific brand. They can tell you how many patients received a catheter, got an infusion, or endured a procedure—but not which patients used your product. And without linkage at the brand-level, companies can’t generate the kind of evidence they need to support marketing claims, differentiate from competitors, or validate their value story.
This limitation is exactly where most conversations about RWE fall apart. And it’s why many marketers feel stuck.
However, a new model is on the rise, one powerful enough to reshape commercial strategy across healthcare: data partnerships between manufacturers and their customers. This blog explores why traditional RWD may not be enough, what data partnerships unlock, and how Bracken can help companies turn these partnerships into rigorous evidence and market-defining narratives.
Most RWD vendors—claims aggregators, EMR data platforms, registry companies—are incredibly strong at capturing what patients received and how they did.
But they cannot detect brand-level product usage.
A real example (generalized for confidentiality):
A device company wanted to evaluate whether their device was associated with fewer hospital acquired infections than others on the market. Multiple data vendors tried to help and could answer broad questions like:
But when the company asked, “How many of those patients used our device?” the answer was the same: “We can’t see brand.”
This blind spot in RWD dramatically restricts a company’s ability to make evidence-based marketing claims. Without brand linkage, the best you can do is make generalized, directional statements, not defensible product-specific ones.
To build credibility, companies need something more.
A data partnership is a structured, compliant agreement in which a manufacturer and its customer (usually a hospital or health system) share de-identified data about real-world product use and patient outcomes.
What makes data partnerships so powerful?
They allow manufacturers to:
For the hospital or healthcare provider, the value proposition is equally compelling:
This creates a true mutual-benefit model, not a one-way data ask. And critically, the technical infrastructure to do this already exists. Tokenization companies allow two separate datasets to be linked using privacy-preserving methods. That means a hospital can share product-use data, a manufacturer can analyze outcomes using external RWD, and the two can be connected without ever exposing PHI.
The framework is in place. What hasn’t existed yet is a commercial strategy for using it.
Once brand-level linkage is possible, an entire world of evidence generation opens up.
This is how marketing evolves from “storytelling” to evidence-driven differentiation.
Data partnerships are powerful—but they involve scientific, operational, regulatory, and analytical complexities that most marketing or commercial teams can’t navigate alone.
Bracken is uniquely capable of closing that gap.
Bracken supports companies:
This requires expertise that sits between RWD, clinical research, and commercial strategy—exactly the kind of work where Bracken’s expert team excels.
Experts in the field, our in-house SMEs, can conduct:
These are the kinds of studies that inform regulatory strategy, clinical decision-making, and high-credibility marketing.
Through Bracken’s “SME-first” marketing model, the same scientific minds who analyze the data partner with marketing experts to convert findings into:
Prospects repeatedly recognize this model as Bracken’s core differentiator: we put scientific expertise at the center of marketing. That’s why clients choose Bracken over generalist agencies—and why data partnerships represent a natural extension of our value.
The industry is shifting. Traditional RWD is no longer sufficient for brand-level credibility. Companies that rely on generic datasets will remain stuck in generalized messaging, unable to make strong, differentiated claims.
Data partnerships represent the next frontier. They enable manufacturers to:
Most importantly, though: This is still an emerging area. Early adopters will define the standard.
Real-world evidence has enormous potential, but its greatest limitation, lack of brand visibility, has held companies back from leveraging it for effective marketing.
Data partnerships change that. They allow companies to generate the exact evidence the industry has been missing: brand-specific, outcome-driven, scientifically credible insights that elevate both clinical and commercial strategy.
And with Bracken’s cross-functional expertise, including but not limited to data science, clinical research, regulatory insight, and SME-led marketing, companies finally have a partner who can guide them through the entire process.
If your team is interested in data partnership strategy, longitudinal RWE analysis, or converting evidence into powerful market messaging, Bracken can help. Let us know how we can support your next step.