Webinar Recap: 5 Signals Reshaping Pharma Marketing in 2026

What women’s health, weight management, and retention reveal about the future of patient engagement

Direct-to-patient virtual care has entered a new phase.

In a recent discussion with DHC Group, leaders from Wheel, Pfizer, and CMI Media Group unpacked what emerging patient behavior data signals for pharmaceutical strategy in 2026. 

Across the discussion, five themes stood out:

• Women’s health as an entry point to ongoing care
• Preference vs. usage gaps in telehealth
• Retention as the true performance metric
• Personalization driven by real-world data
• Continuity as the differentiator in DTP models

The panel’s message was clear. The market has moved past episodic telehealth. Virtual care is now shaping longitudinal patient behavior, and success increasingly depends on designing for continuity rather than one-time access.

Across women’s health and weight management, the panel surfaced a consistent pattern. Patients are not thinking in brands or single conditions. They are looking for care experiences that remember them, support them across life stages, and help manage real-world complexity.

Below are the five signals pharma marketers should be paying attention to now.

Signal 1. Women’s health is the front door to longitudinal care

Women’s health has become the clearest bellwether for how patient expectations are changing.

Wheel data shows that women’s health accounted for roughly 50% of all virtual care visits in 2025, with 58% of women’s health patients returning for a second visit or beyond. This level of repeat behavior signals durable engagement, not episodic use.

Patients often enter virtual care through practical, prescription-enabled needs such as UTIs, vaginal health, or birth control. Over time, those early interactions establish trust and clinical context that carry forward. Utilization data shows a clear life-stage progression, with increasing engagement among women aged 43-58 and 59+, aligning with perimenopause and menopause care delivered through virtual-first models.

Why preference for telehealth exceeds actual usage

This shift is not happening in isolation. As Ian Essling of CMI Media Group noted during the discussion, patient preference data shows a meaningful disconnect between what women want, what they are currently using, and what support they seek from their HCPs.

Among women experiencing menopause:

• 19% say telehealth is their most-preferred method of interacting with a provider, making them 46% more likely than the general population to prefer telehealth.
• Yet, only 8% say telehealth is currently their most-used method of care.

Source: CMI Media Group, Media Vitals 2025 (U.S., adults 18+; women experiencing menopause)

That gap points to unmet demand rather than lack of interest, and offers plenty of opportunity to reach this audience with meaningful and useful information at the right time.

CMI’s social listening and survey data add critical context. Beyond convenience, women in the survey cited ‘reduced stress’ as a key reason for preferring telehealth. Additionally, across social media, many expressed frustration with traditional care, difficulty accessing clinicians with menopause expertise, and feeling dismissed or rushed in in-person settings.

Why women’s health matters for pharma

Women’s health should not be treated as a niche franchise or a single campaign moment. It is an engagement foundation. The preference-versus-usage gap suggests opportunity for brands and care platforms that can meet patients where they want to be, with experiences designed for continuity and responsiveness.

Signal 2. Menopause is revealing a care gap, not creating demand

A critical clarification from the panel was that menopause is not creating new demand. It is revealing where the system has struggled to support women.

CMI Media Group’s social listening surfaced recurring themes among midlife women:

• Difficulty accessing knowledgeable providers
• Long wait times and fragmented referrals
• Insurance and cost barriers
• Emotional fatigue from not feeling heard

At the same time, Wheel’s data shows midlife women increasingly turning to virtual care and returning for follow-up visits. The demand already exists. What has been missing is infrastructure designed for ongoing, connected care.

Why menopause matters for pharma

Menopause care intersects hormonal health, metabolic risk, mental health, and chronic conditions. Programs built around isolated therapies will feel incomplete. Longitudinal models that support complexity are increasingly expected.

Signal 3. Weight management turned access into an expectation

If women’s health is the bellwether, weight management is the stress test.

The mainstream adoption of GLP-1 therapies permanently changed patient expectations. What began as a focus on access has evolved into demand for ongoing support.

Wheel data shows:

• A 263% increase in chronic and preventive care demand from Q1 to Q4 2025
• Weight management programs acting as a gateway into broader longitudinal care
• Significantly higher retention when weight management is delivered as an integrated care program rather than prescription access alone

Why retention improves when support doesn’t disappear

As discussed during the panel, patients are not disengaging because they lack motivation. They disengage when support disappears after the prescription. Access-only or prescription-only DTP models consistently underperform because they reset the journey instead of sustaining it, leading to poor patient retention in virtual care.

Why weight management matters for pharma

Winning weight management strategies will look less like campaigns and more like care journeys built to sustain engagement from day one.

Signal 4. Data-driven personalization is now mission-critical

From the pharma operator perspective, Elsa Rive Boukadoum of Pfizer emphasized that direct-to-patient channels matter not just for access, but for what they enable.

As Elsa noted during the discussion, DTP platforms generate real-world data that can be used to personalize education, support, and care pathways, especially when DTP access is integrated with patient support. That personalization improves adherence and follow-through, especially in long-term therapies where drop-off has historically been high.

She also highlighted several capabilities that will be mission-critical in 2026:

• Building long-term patient relationships, not just awareness
• Transparency around pricing, access, and expectations
• Simplifying access and care journeys to reduce friction
• Using data to tailor experiences rather than delivering one-size-fits-all programs

Why virtual care data matters for pharma

Data is no longer just an analytics function. It is foundational to personalization, engagement, and outcomes. Organizations that fail to operationalize real-world data into patient experience design will fall behind.

Signal 5. Direct-to-Patient Models Reward Continuity, Not Access

One of the clearest economic signals discussed was the rise of self-pay care. The vast majority of Wheel-powered visits are paid out of pocket, reflecting patient preference for direct, frictionless access.

In self-pay environments, churn is immediate and visible. Patients vote with their wallets. This dynamic forces a focus on experience, continuity, and trust rather than relying on network structures or benefit design, reinforcing why pharma needs DTP infrastructure, not just lower prices.

As discussed on the panel, direct-to-patient models do not reward access alone. They reward continuity.

Why this matters for pharma:

As DTP strategies expand, success will be determined less by acquisition volume and more by sustained engagement. Retention becomes the economic signal that matters most.

What this means for pharma marketers in 2026

Taken together, these signals point to a clear shift.

Virtual care is no longer supplemental. It is becoming the infrastructure through which patients build long-term relationships with care, and increasingly, with brands.

Growth in 2026 will be shaped by:

• Retention over reach
• Longitudinal engagement over episodic access
• Data-driven personalization over generic programs

The next phase of pharma strategy favors models built to last.