Capital S Consulting

Rare Disease CRM for the Patients Others Miss

For firms commercializing a therapy for a very small, scattered patient population, we stand up the first commercial CRM and integrate the real-world data that surfaces the patients hiding in lab and claims signals

Overview

A CRM Built for the Rare Disease Reality

In rare disease, the patients exist but are hard to find. They sit at the end of a long diagnostic odyssey, scattered across the country, often misdiagnosed for years. A field team built on specialty and geography targeting will walk past them. Capital S builds rare disease CRM on Salesforce that integrates the real-world data you already license, so a lean commercial team can find the few providers treating undiagnosed patients, support the medical affairs relationships that drive treatment decisions, and bring the therapy to the patients who need it. It is the rare disease focus within our broader life sciences CRM work.

Why It Is Different

Rare Disease Is Not Primary Care

The playbook that works for a primary care brand falls apart when the patient population is small, scattered, and hard to diagnose. The system has to match that reality

01

Small, Scattered Populations

A handful of patients per state, often undiagnosed. Broad territory targeting wastes a small team's time. You need to know which specific providers are seeing these patients now

02

The Diagnostic Odyssey

Patients move through years of misdiagnosis and referrals before a confirmed answer. Lab and claims signals appear long before diagnosis, and that is where identification has to start

03

Medical Affairs Leads

KOL relationships and scientific exchange drive treatment decisions more than reach. Medical affairs needs equal standing with commercial, with the compliance separation that demands

04

Every Patient Counts

A single confirmed patient can change the trajectory of a launch. The cost of missing one is far higher than in a primary care market, so the system is built to catch every signal

Patient Identification

From Generic Education to Patient-Level Identification

In rare disease, a conversation built on broad disease awareness rarely moves a patient forward. The provider has seen the educational deck. What changes outcomes is walking in already knowing which of their patients show the diagnostic history that points to the condition. We turn the real-world data you already buy into patient-level identification inside Salesforce, so field and medical teams engage providers about the specific patients in their practice rather than the disease in the abstract

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Real-World Data Integration

We stand up an AWS data warehouse as the integration layer and build the ETL pipelines that validate and normalize lab, claims, and prescription data from IQVIA, Komodo Health, and Prognos before it flows into Salesforce, with tokenization that protects patient identity. See how we approach data integration

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AI Lead Scoring for Rare Signals

Machine learning learns which precursor patterns predict a rare condition months before confirmed diagnosis, then surfaces the providers seeing those patients. Where you elect to go beyond provider-level targeting, we score de-identified patients from lab and claims data and present that pipeline alongside the providers treating them, with identified data kept in the CRM and de-identified data in the warehouse. One rare disease firm used this approach to identify more than $30 million in incremental revenue opportunities. Read the case study

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Patient Journey Mapping

Track where patients sit on the diagnostic path and which providers and referral patterns move them forward, so field and medical teams act at the moment intervention matters most

What We Build

The Platform Behind a Rare Disease Launch

Most of the firms we work with are standing up commercial systems for the first time. We build the full platform on Salesforce and scale it from a first launch through national use. These are the capabilities we bring to a launch.

01

Salesforce Platform Implementation

We implement and customize Salesforce as the system of record for your launch, built on the Life Sciences Cloud data model and shaped to how your team works rather than a generic template

02

Medical Affairs & Scientific Engagement

Support for KOL relationships, medical science liaison activity, scientific exchange, and medical information requests, kept properly separate from commercial

03

HCP Engagement

Unified provider profiles, engagement planning, and compliant outreach, so a lean team spends its time on the providers who matter most

04

Integrations & Data Infrastructure

Connect your vendors, partners, and real-world data sources into one governed layer so every team works from the same source of truth

05

Analytics & Reporting

Dashboards that track patient identification, provider engagement, and launch performance for both the field team and leadership

Why Capital S

Why Rare Disease Firms Choose Capital S

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A Track Record in Rare Disease

We have built the patient identification and commercial systems behind rare disease launches, including AI lead scoring that surfaced more than $30 million in incremental revenue opportunities for one firm

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First-Launch Experience

We know how to build lean for a first commercial team and scale as the therapy grows, so the system fits where you are now without boxing in where you are headed

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Compliance Built In

Medical and commercial separation, HIPAA-compliant handling of patient data, and audit trails for regulatory inspections are designed in from the start, not retrofitted after launch

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a rare disease CRM?

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A rare disease CRM is a customer relationship management system configured for the realities of orphan drug commercialization: small and scattered patient populations, long diagnostic journeys, KOL-driven treatment decisions, and medical affairs teams that need equal standing with commercial.

Built on Salesforce, it integrates real-world data to surface the few providers treating undiagnosed patients, instead of the broad territory targeting that works for primary care but fails in rare disease.

How do you find patients when the population is so small and scattered?

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We integrate lab results, claims data, and diagnostic codes from platforms like IQVIA, Komodo Health, and Prognos into Salesforce, then apply AI lead scoring that learns which precursor signals predict a rare condition months before confirmed diagnosis.

That surfaces the specific providers seeing patients on the diagnostic journey, so a small field team spends its time where the patients actually are instead of working broad specialty lists.

We are pre-commercial. When should we set up our CRM?

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Earlier than most firms expect. Standing up the CRM and real-world data integrations before launch means your field and medical teams start identifying patients and building KOL relationships from day one, rather than scrambling after approval.

We keep the first build lean and focused on patient identification, then expand it as the therapy scales. The goal is to be finding patients the moment you can treat them.

How is rare disease commercialization different from primary care?

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The patient population is small and hard to find, the diagnostic odyssey is long, a single confirmed patient can change a launch, and KOL relationships drive treatment decisions more than broad reach. Medical affairs carries more weight than in primary care.

Generic territory targeting by specialty and geography misses these patients entirely, which is why rare disease teams need real-world data driving the workflow rather than static lists.

Should a rare disease firm use Salesforce or Veeva?

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For a first commercial system, most rare disease firms prefer the flexibility of Salesforce. It customizes to a unique launch strategy, integrates the real-world data that finds patients, and offers shorter contract terms than Veeva's multi-year commitments.

Veeva enforces predefined workflows and is migrating off its original Salesforce infrastructure, which adds risk for a team setting up for the first time. We help you weigh the tradeoff for your therapeutic area.

Can the CRM support patient services and hub programs?

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Yes. Rare disease therapies usually depend on patient hub services for benefits verification, copay support, adherence, and nursing. We connect those programs into Salesforce so enrollment, consent, and adherence data live alongside provider and patient records.

Tokenization and role-based security keep protected health information compliant, giving you one view of each patient from identification through onboarding and ongoing support.

Bring your therapy to the patients who need it

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