There’s been a lot of accusations of fake news in the media recently. You may have heard. So, I thought I’d jump on that bandwagon with my own accusations of fake news. Specifically, being patient-centric. Or, more accurately, companies claiming to be patient-centric whilst doing absolutely nothing different to back that claim up. Many large companies in life sciences are increasingly claiming to, ‘put the patient at the centre of everything we do’. But, if you ask how they are doing this or what different activity they are embracing to be patient-centric you get a sort of shrug of the shoulders. It’s what you have to be seen to say these days. Fake news.
Now, I’m not here to bash pharmaceutical companies. They get a lot of unfair bashing as is. Politicians talk about high margins and excessive profits (like they would never condone excessive votes in their favour). But the truth is medications take about ten years to develop and cost over a billion dollars each along the way. And many fail at different phases in clinical trials. That’s why the high margins – to recoup the investment of previously failed drug development. Also, people don’t like companies to make money out of healthcare. That’s not right. But it’s perfectly fine for Disney to make money out of entertainment.
At the risk of being distracted and being seen to support the pharmaceutical industry. My intention was to constructively criticise. As I was saying, fake news.
If they change, you change
It is well documented that the healthcare model is changing. Previously the physician was king, patients bowed to their guidance and care, pharma companies did all they could to influence their prescribing behaviours. Now, patients can quickly read up on their symptoms and self-diagnose. They are more informed. They ask for specific medications from their primary physician rather than wait to be told. They are increasingly saying those words that every doctor dreads, ‘I’ve been Googling…’.
So, what do you do? You become patient-centric. You have to learn more about their opinions and behaviours so you can understand them better and meet their needs. It’s something consumer companies have been doing for decades.
Get this. I recently attended a healthcare conference where a speaker made the suggestion that pharma companies ought to be commissioning research with patients in order to become more patient-centric. Really? In 2018 this is considered new thinking? Really…? I don’t want to be profane but the phrase, ‘No $&*% Sherlock’ sprang to mind.
To be fair, many in the pharma industry have spent many years establishing physician opinion. Patients are a new, more challenging customer to understand. And, what’s heartening is that there is a desire to learn from other industries and to try new techniques but, some just don’t know what or how.
It may seem overly simplistic but there is the unavoidable solution that you need to spend time with patients to be patient-centric. There is no excuse not to. Not just commissioning large, multi-country market research studies but personally, with patients in their normal everyday lives. Sometimes called ‘patient immersion’ or ‘customer closeness’ it involves you (not a research company) meeting with and having a very human interaction (which can also be called, ‘a chat’) with a patient to better understand their life and their condition. Why? Because it’s what patient-centricity involves and it’s good for patients and business, “Your company is 50% more likely to over perform if it incorporates direct employee-customer connection at multiple stages of the planning process.” (Harvard Business Review 2016, Building An Insight Engine).
So, if you would like to be truly patient-centric, please get in touch.
Get out and Mingle – be better connected.
Image courtesy of Joshua Ness on Unsplash.