Deep Dive: Patient Engagement

Even in just the last five years the growth of patient-centric pharma has been phenomenal  – especially for a traditionally conservative, slow-moving industry.

Few would deny there is still a long way to go before the industry can truly claim to have mastered patient engagement, but I certainly feel like it’s made the transition from being a vague hope to a tangible part of every company’s business – as demonstrated by the number of success stories in this issue of Deep Dive.

First up we have an exclusive interview with Anthony Yanni, Astellas’ new head of patient centricity (a role that would have been unheard of five years ago), about his vision for integrating the patient voice into the company.

Elsewhere, MS patient advocate Trishna Bharadia tells us how she worked with Merck to develop a truly patient-centred event, and we take a look at how online patient communities can be used to identify unmet need – so long as analysts remember that patients don’t discuss their conditions in pharmaceutical terms!

Experts from Syneos Health run through the best ways to improve trial recruitment through patient engagement; Krystallia Pantiri from Pharmerit explains how patient involvement with HTA groups needs to evolve; and Emma Sutcliffe from Nexgen Healthcare Communications gives her views on the future of the area.

And since digital is such a key part of patient engagement, we also speak to Sandoz’s digital guru Andre Heeg about his views on the area, while experts from S3 Connected Health look at how companies can improve adoption of digital health solutions.

I hope you enjoy the issue.

Kind regards,
George

George Underwood – Editor, Deep Dive: Patient Engagement