Benchmarking Patient Centricity

Benchmarking Patient Centricity Moving toward a clearer global view of what “patient centricity” means

By Jill Donahue, Principal, EngageRx

It’s encouraging that patient centricity has become a major focus for most companies. The next step, however, is defining exactly what this means, what it entails, and what the processes are that will make it effective. Beliefs and intentions are empty without the knowledge and skill to move them to actions and measurable outcomes.

What if we were trusted, valued partnersinhealthcare?Ofthe many hurdles this industry faces, perhaps the most important is regaining the public’s faith in us. This is vital to achieving the engagement we need to advance betteroutcomes.Beingpatient focused is the essential component necessary to achieve this goal. That’swhyTheAuroraProjectwas established: to illuminate the path to patient centricity. ORIGINS At the largest global conference for pharma,eyeforpharmaBarcelona 2016,Iconductedvideointerviews with thought leaders. One of the questionsIaskedwas“Thinking oftheaphorism‘Wecan’tmanage what we can’t measure,’ how are you measuring your efforts to be patient-centric?”Theanswerssimply weren’t that impressive. And that’swhenPaulSimms,chairman of eyeforpharma, and I hatched the idea to try to globally benchmark our progress with patient-focused missions. As we started gaining input on this idea, more and more people becameexcitedaboutit.Inthe end,apanelof70highlyqualified andexperiencedadvisorswasconsulted on the content and design of the survey, and an additional 800advisorsofferedtohelpwith dissemination and interpretation offindings. Thuswehadthefirsteverglobal large-scale survey of its kind, to benchmark patient-focused intentions, actions and outcomes based onverifiable,comprehensiveand global survey responses. Invited survey participants were drawn from a global cross-section of industry professionals in pharma and health care provision, as well as from patients and patient groups. Care was taken to ensure a range in seniority, roles, geography and company size among respondents.Intotal,2346responses, spreadacross84countries,were receivedfromthe80,000invitees. For a summary of the survey,

click here.

The survey was aimed at identifyingnotjustthebarriersbutwhat people are doing right, how the “wisdom of crowds” sees the way forwardandwhatexactlypatientcentricity means to people. WHO PARTICIPATED >70advisorsindesign >800advisorsininterpretation, dissemination 2346participants • Patient/groups(61) • Bio/pharma/meddevice(1150) • Solutionproviders(797) • Other(338) 84countries DatacollectioncompletedMarch, 2016 WHAT DID WE LEARN? The data from the survey is rich. Belowarethetopfiveinsights. Spoiler alert. The number one insight is that pharma really does believe patient centricity is the answer. See Figure 1 on page 50. What is perhaps the most optimisticfindingisthatcompanies with senior leaders who walk their talk by transforming their cultural mindset with all departments appear to be in the lead when it comestopatient-focusedprofitability. See Figure 2 on page 51. HOW ORGANIZATIONS SEE THEMSELVES The survey measured respondents’ perceptions of how well they think theyaredoing—andwhatthey think patient centricity means. JensLipinski,HeadPatientRelations,BayerVitals,says,“Amazing-

Figure 2

ly, most participants in the survey describe their organizations as slightly or far ahead of other companies.Themajorityoforganizations position themselves ahead of the average. I am convinced that this result is based on the presence ofdifferentdefinitionsorperceptions of patient centricity. Some of us in pharma still tend to reduce patient centricity to the development and provision of safe and beneficialproductsandservices. The survey clearly demonstrates that we have many more options todemonstratecloseproximityto patients’ needs.” Notsurprisingly,86%oftherespondents believe it is very important for pharma to deliver on patient-focused missions. Their confidenceinthe“how,”however,lagsbehind.Confidence that pharma can implement their patient-focused ideologies showed whoisleastconfident—patientsat 11.48%—andwhoismostconfident—CEO’sat36%(stillnotan inspiringnumber).Thisallows us to pinpoint barriers to patientfocused actions, as well as areas of concern. This is essential if barriers are to be overcome and effective solutions found. ESTABLISHING WAYS FORWARD While it is easy to pay lip service to a patient-centric model, it is far more difficult for large corporations to implement new ways of working. Companies can now see where they are in relation to other companies when it comes to patient-focused intentions, actions, and outcomes, as well as where they might better place their efforts. Often, when you are too close to something it is difficult to see the bigger picture. The Aurora Projectisbothalenstoviewthe global picture of pharma’s patientfocused efforts and some patientfocused catalysts that can help us craft the future. We want to help companies and individuals re-set their direction anddefinetheirstrategiesgoing

forward. This is best achieved by effective collaborationandnetworking,asbestpracticeexamplesshared within the survey show. WHERE TO NEXT? The global survey has drawn a line in the sand. We know where we are now and we can measure progress againstthis.Evenbetter,wehaveidentifiedpeople throughout the world who are passionately working onthesamegoal—togrowtheirbusinessesinpatientfocused ways. The survey brought us together and through that community, we can accelerate progress on our mutual goals.

“Some of us in pharma still tend to reduce patient centricity to the development and provision of safe and beneficial products and services.The survey clearly demonstrates that we have many more options to demonstrate close proximity to patients’ needs.”

Jens Lipinski, Head Patient Relations, Bayer Vitals

We want to repeat the survey each year and envision seeing great progress in efforts and outcomes. To help ensure that progress, the group has crowd sourced ideas and strategies beyond the survey. So far, we have fiveprojectsunderway,including: 1. Defining Patient Centricity 2. Publishing deep dives from survey results 3. The Practical Guide for each department 4. The Treaty 5. #PharmaPride social media campaign Webelievefirstandforemostthatbeingpatient focused results in better outcomes for all; patients, society, health-care professionals and our organizations. And secondly that we can achieve those outcomes faster together than any individual or company can alone. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all ships. We need to take the wave of innovators and spread theirexperiencessothatothersareinspirednotonly torecreatebuttoimproveonthoseexamples.Byfar themostcommonanswertothequestionregarding training is that people are actively looking for what and how to train people to make patient centricity work. We need to make the benchmarks in this survey public so that we can stop merely talking about patient centricity and start actually making it work! We need this, health care professionals need this, our organizations need this and most importantly, patientsneedthis.•

Jill Donahue Principal, EngageRx, HBa, MAdEd Jill is on a mission to lift our industry, building purposedriven, influential people. Through her keynote talks, workshops and award-winning mobilelearning programs, she is helping teams build trust, open doors and make a bigger impact. As the co-founder of the nonprofit group The Aurora Project, she is helping to illuminate our path to patient centricity.