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 finds the patients hiding in lab and claims signals
A CRM Built for the Rare Disease Reality
In rare disease, the patients exist but are hard to find. Many spend years misdiagnosed before anyone connects the pattern, and by the time they reach the right specialist the disease has often advanced. Finding the providers already treating diagnosed patients is the easy part: the claims and lab data point straight to them. The more valuable work is building the diagnostic history of the patients already on therapy, so the signals that preceded their diagnosis can identify the next patient earlier, before the disease advances to the stage where the right specialist is already in the room. Capital S builds rare disease CRM on Salesforce that does both: it finds the specialists treating patients today, and it keeps getting smarter about where your reps spend their time next, all in service of better patient outcomes. It is the rare disease focus within our broader life sciences CRM work
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
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
Years to a Diagnosis
Patients cycle through physicians, referrals, and misdiagnoses for years before anyone names the condition, and the disease advances the whole time nobody connects the pattern. Lab and claims signals show up long before the diagnosis is written down, which is where earlier identification has to start
Medical Affairs Works Differently
Medical affairs responds to provider inquiries, handles medical information requests, and runs scientific outreach. That team needs its own system from day one, separated from commercial and built around scientific exchange rather than call plans
Every Patient Counts
With a population this small, every patient you find matters to the launch, and the cost of missing one runs far higher than in a primary care market. The system is built to catch every signal
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 targeting inside Salesforce, so field and medical teams engage providers about the specific patients in their practice rather than the disease in the abstract
Real-World Data Integration
We stand up an AWS data warehouse 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
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
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 when intervention matters most
Find the Patient Who Has Coverage
Finding a patient is half the job. Finding the one whose plan will cover the therapy is what starts treatment this quarter instead of next year. We profile the payer landscape from the claims data: coverage patterns, prior authorization requirements, and appeal outcomes by payer and plan. That analysis shapes which providers the field prioritizes and gives your field reimbursement managers the payer context before the first call
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. The foundation is the same one we build for pharmaceutical commercial teams, sized for a launch team rather than a national field force. These are the capabilities we bring to a launch, and they come together as a single rare disease launch platform
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
Medical Affairs & Scientific Engagement
Support for KOL relationships, medical science liaison activity, scientific exchange, and medical information requests, kept properly separate from commercial. Expanded access program inquiries route from your intake channels to the partner who runs the program, so patient identity stays out of your systems, and the transition from expanded access to commercial gets planned before the program ends
HCP Engagement
Unified provider profiles, engagement planning, and compliant outreach, so a lean team spends its time on the providers who matter most
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
Analytics & Reporting
Dashboards that track patient identification, provider engagement, and launch performance for both the field team and leadership. Payer targeting and profiling sits here too: coverage patterns and prior authorization outcomes by plan, so market access and the field work from the same map
Specialty Pharmacy and Hub Integration
Scheduled feeds from your hub and specialty pharmacy partners that bring enrollment, benefits verification, prior authorization, and dispense status, gated on patient consent and visible to your team without leaving Salesforce
Patient Services Integration
Field reimbursement workflows in your CRM and de-identified case visibility flowing from your hub, keyed to a tokenized patient identifier, with copay and shipment status on every patient journey
Why Rare Disease Firms Choose Capital S
A Track Record in Rare Disease
We have built the patient identification and commercial systems behind rare disease launches, including AI lead scoring that found more than $30 million in incremental revenue opportunities for one firm
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
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
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a rare disease CRM?
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 find 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?
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 shows you the specific providers seeing patients on the diagnostic journey, so a small field team spends its time where the patients are instead of working broad specialty lists.
We also profile the payer landscape in the same data, because the patient whose plan covers the therapy is the one who starts treatment soonest.
We are pre-commercial. When should we set up our CRM?
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 as soon as you can treat them. If you run an expanded access program before approval, usually through a third-party partner, that is another reason to start early: the routing of inquiries into the partner's intake and the plan for moving patients to commercial should both exist before your commercial team inherits the system.
How is rare disease commercialization different from primary care?
The patient population is small and hard to find, the road to diagnosis runs years, every patient found matters to the 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?
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?
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.