Patient pathway

We assisted the European Medical Management of a pharmaceutical company to optimize the care pathway and emotional management of patients suffering from a rare respiratory disease in several European countries.

As this rare disease is difficult to diagnose and often confused with more common respiratory diseases, the time required to diagnose patients was too long (2 to 3 years). Our client wished to position itself as a public health player by providing hospitals (3 centers per country, in different countries) with Alcimed’s service for:

1. Diagnose the current coordination of care between the different healthcare actors involved in the patient pathway.
2. Co-define with this multidisciplinary team an ideal patient management model and an associated action plan.
3. Implement the actions defined at the local and national level.

The result for our client? A reduction in patient diagnosis time and an overall improvement in physician coordination, an increase in therapeutic management and a change in the sales team’s stance.

One of our clients, a leading pharmaceutical company, wanted to improve the care of patients suffering from a rare disease by developing a high value-added service offering that would improve their well-being or quality of life throughout their care pathway (from diagnosis to palliative care).

To do this, our team interviewed patients, patient support workers and associations in each country involved in order to map their emotions and to identify the levers for improving their well-being and quality of life that could be addressed by developing services. Following this, our team pre-tested these service ideas with healthcare professionals, before organizing a workshop to co-construct a service development roadmap with our client’s medical and marketing teams.

Ultimately, several services were deployed in the pilot countries and then extended to other countries in the zone, improving the emotional pathway of patients and positioning our client as a major player in public health.

Noting numerous local problems in the patient care pathway (abnormally long diagnosis time, problems with referrals between caregivers, poor legibility of the pathway, etc.), a leading pharmaceutical company called on our team to optimize the care pathway of patients with chronic diseases and facilitate their global management at the local level in a dozen regions in France.

Following our PEPS methodology (Patient Pathway Efficiency Program), the first step of our project consisted in selecting pilot centers and training multidisciplinary teams within these centers. Our team then conducted a diagnosis of the care chain by discussing with all key stakeholders involved in the patient pathway, and then co-defined with the pilot teams of each center an ideal operating target to be reached and an associated improvement action plan.

Finally, we supported the center teams in the definition of key performance indicators (KPIs) and in implementing the co-defined actions through to the analysis of the impacts of these actions, in order to finally implement the most value-creating actions at the regional level.

For a medical device player wishing to enter the type 2 diabetes market in Germany, Alcimed analyzed the key stages of the patient pathway, from diagnosis to therapeutic follow-up, the stakeholders involved and the main barriers and uncovered patient needs.

As a result, we were able to identify that our client’s product in its current version did not meet market expectations, and recommended to our client the target characteristics that were essential, and those that were less of a priority, to successfully enter the German market.

There are specific territorial challenges in the French West Indies and French Guyana that impede or delay access to care for patients (due to insularity, distance from mainland France, or the fragility of medical resources). Based on these observations and on the need for adequate territorial medical specialties and resources, a pharmaceutical company wished to decipher and structure the care pathway for patients suffering from a rare disease within the Caribbean region.

To do so, we used the tracer methodology to analyze the steps experienced by patients, along his or her care pathway, as well as their feelings and those of their family and/or caregivers. We then compared this initial vision with that of the local healthcare professionals involved in the care pathway. This detailed analysis of the care pathway, incorporating the experiences of patients and their families as well as the vision of healthcare professionals, enabled us to conduct workshops that led to a concrete action plan to implement solutions tailored to local context and stakes and developed by multidisciplinary and multi-professional teams.

Finally, we supported our client in defining a strategy to share results on a broader scale through a scientific publication, along with an internal and external communication plan.

Alcimed assisted a pharmaceutical player in analyzing the pre-diagnosis pathway of patients suffering from a rare hematological disease in France, and in optimizing patient referral towards expert care centers.

To do so, we investigated the main steps towards diagnosis, the associated timeframes and the interactions between HCPs involved (key exams conducted, patient referral practices, etc.). To this end, we interviewed HCPs from both referring and expert centers to decipher main pain points of the pre-diagnosis pathway (with regards symptom detection, knowledge of the disease, conduction of exploratory exams, referral process towards expert centers, etc.). This analysis was complemented by a review of existing and most recent data of the pathology and its care management (national patient registry, local epidemiology data, etc.). Finally, the patients’ vision and experience was integrated in the analysis thanks to a patient questionnaire developed in collaboration with the national patient association.

This project enabled our client to have an in-depth analysis of the care pathway upstream from the expert centers, that integrates the patients’ voice on top of HCPs’ vision. This facilitated the identification of strategic priorities for our client and concrete action levers to facilitate patient referral and reduce diagnostic wandering.

Alcimed supported a pharmaceutical company in preparing the launch of their existing second-line product as first-line treatment option for a hematological syndrome.

To do so, we deciphered the patient first-line care pathway, from symptoms onset to first prescription, via interviews with HCPs responsible for diagnosis and treatment initiation (hematologists and nurses). It enabled us to identify good practices to leverage and the main pain points to anticipate ahead of the product launch in first line. We also looked into the perception of HCPs regarding first-line current treatments, along with main criteria justifying the selection of a specific first-line treatment option. This was challenged during internal workshops with our client’s teams to identify differentiation levers to activate and to define the key communication axes to maximize adoption by HCPs.

In the end, this investigation helped us in defining a clear and wining positioning for our client’s treatment as first-line option, strategic priorities for successful launch and operational implications with regards to communication campaigns.