Patient centricity

Patient empowerment

With the evolution of information technologies and the emergence of social networks, the relationship of patients to their health has been disrupted. Thanks to numerous and accessible sources of information, we have seen the emergence of increasingly “expert” patients, with a great knowledge of their pathology, their treatments, their management, etc. Patients are therefore better informed, and actors in their own therapeutic education, but they are also more listened to, in particular because of the omnipresence of social networks on which they can express themselves.

In this context, the credibility and legitimacy granted between patients to the comments of their “peers” is very strong, although sometimes biased and without expertise, or even totally false. The insights shared and their level of influence must be monitored to avoid any potentially harmful drift for other patients.

For companies in the pharma industry, taking into account and integrating this “patient power” into their approach is a major challenge, whether in terms of exchanges with patient associations or even therapeutic education.

In a more indirect way, social listening, allowing to monitor social networks, is a very powerful tool that must be exploited to understand and follow opinions and trends among patients.

How to secure patient information sources? How to promote positive and helpful testimonials for the entire patient community? How to collect the patient’s voice to improve patient care?

Building a collaborative relationship

The patient-centered concept aims to include the patient in the steps related to it, such as the innovation strategy, clinical research and the optimization of a care pathway. Placing the patient as a partner from this early stage both establishes a relationship of trust and ensures that patient-centered care is achieved.

This relationship also makes it possible to ensure close monitoring of essential parameters such as the effectiveness of the treatment, its ease of use for patients, the management of side effects, etc. In this context, it is essential to think about tomorrow’s innovations such as connected health devices, in a patient-centric approach, so as to achieve a result that is easy to use for the patient and that meets their needs.

How to include patients from the early stages of drug development? How to adapt to their expectations and where to focus between the effectiveness of the treatment and the acceptability of its implementation?

Personalization of care

The personalization of care is a fundamental aspect of the concept: it allows care that is adapted to the specificities of each patient. This development is made possible by the rise of digital tools, particularly around health data and their analysis (shared medical records, predictive analyses, etc.). This approach to personalization of care is part of patient centricity, since it is built around the patient and their journey, in order to have a more detailed analysis of their needs.

How to establish a relationship of trust with patients, and lead to personalized products and services co-constructed with them? How to support the personalization of care pathways, in particular via the possibilities of big data, and for what added value?

The management and relevant use of patient data, and health information in general, is an important issue for healthcare professionals (HCPs), companies and patients alike. The digitization of health data and the use of connected devices are essential areas to be developed, in which the involvement of patients, and therefore the co-construction of tools, is a major challenge in order to achieve the implementation of solutions. effective and relevant to the patient, whether in terms of ease of use, cybersecurity, etc.

The development of digital tools for therapeutic education, such as e-learning modules, is also an important issue for the empowerment and autonomy of patients.

This is a subject of growing interest for patients and therefore a major challenge for companies in the pharma industry, in the era of digital medicine and mobile medical monitoring applications.

How to develop digital services that meet patient expectations, and allow sufficient access, monitoring and data security? When and how to involve patients in the design and deployment of these tools, and on what aspects should they be involved?

The paradigm shift brought about by the advent of patient centricity, with the integration of patient centric approaches into the strategy of healthcare players, implies a transformation of the processes in place: innovation processes and clinical trials are good examples.

Integrating the patient into innovation processes

The patient-centric concept must be integrated from the early stages of development, in order to listen to and understand the needs of patients, to anticipate all the impacts of products and services on their lives and on their quality of life. Patient centricity therefore requires involving the patient in the innovation process, to guide the development and implementation of solutions, and lead to acclaimed and useful solutions. This integration of patients upstream of product development is a major challenge for the pharma industry, and requires an overhaul of traditional innovation processes.

When is the right time to include patients? How to reach and mobilize them? Is there an associated regulatory framework? What are the trade-offs to incorporate patient voices?

An evolution towards the clinical trials of tomorrow

New patient-centered technologies such as digital health records can facilitate the recruitment, follow-up and retention of patients included in clinical trials, in particular living far from centers, and therefore have a positive impact on the quality of therapies and drugs that are being evaluated. The use of these technologies also results in major transformations for clinical trials, whether in terms of recruitment, scope, collection or analysis of data.

How to reorganize and optimize processes to fully integrate them into the overall strategy of a patient-centric concept? How to ensure that these digital tools are also designed to take into account the voice of patients, on all aspects of treatment?

From the strategic reorientation that is patient centricity stems a change of mindset that must be cultivated within healthcare companies. Developing a strong patient-centric culture in all spheres of their business is therefore an important issue for pharma laboratories and medical device suppliers. For this, it is necessary to demonstrate and support the value provided by the concept, both for the patient as well as for HCPs and companies in the pharma industry.

Patient-centric communication, for example, is an important issue, and must adapt to reflect this new state of mind: the personalization of communication and the construction of a collaborative relationship are among the topics to be highlighted.

How to reorganize and optimize processes to fully integrate them into the overall strategy of a patient-centric concept? How to ensure that these digital tools are also designed to take into account the voice of patients, on all aspects of treatment?