A Modern Beauty & the Beast of Pharma

A Modern Beauty & the Beast of Pharma

Clinical trial cost reduction is often at an antithesis to the patient engagement efforts that the pharma industry is seeking to embrace. We are encouraged nonetheless by a paradigm shift in corporate analytics and smarter data management systems being integrated into executive decision making at all levels of the pharma value chain. Ever since the Internet came to the fore, Moore's Law has not left healthcare isolated - the richness and speed at which medical information is at our disposal, has been driven exponentially by innovation in areas of smart-system genomics, computer-aided drug design, electronic medical records, FT-medical imaging and adverse event reporting to name just a few. The pharma industry may have reached that pinnacle where it can derive cost reduction benefits from pushing Moore's law in fast acquisition, analysis, implementation and visualization of diverse and terabytic data sets uploaded to cloud-based platforms that can empower the best outcomes for the patient. As long as Moore's Law holds we can always anticipate the patient's needs to be met cost effectively yet hopefully with the engagement aspect not eroded.

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The Patient Journey – A Holistic Journey

The Patient Journey – A Holistic Journey

In the first year of medical school, future medics are taught in their clinical practice training to make use of the mnemonic acronym SOCRATES in dealing with pain assessment in their case studies and in practising on the ward. The acronym stands for the following:

Site – Where is the pain?

Onset – When did the pain start, and has it been progressive or regressive?

Character – What is the pain like? Dull? Stabbing?

Radiation – Does the pain radiate to other bodily parts?

Associations – Any other signs or symptoms associated with the pain?

Time course – Does the pain follow any pattern?

Exacerbating – Does anything change the pain?

Severity – How bad is the pain? Can the patient grade it from 1 to 10?

Understanding truly what is the nature of the patient's pain is part and parcel of the patient journey, and at i3 Consult we believe that this information should relay all the through to the market access efforts of pharma? In these days of patient centricity of the healthcare profession, shouldn't the companies who actually innovate, develop and supply the medicines be also focusing more on the patient journey, and therefore would this not also have positive knock effects for holistic quality healthcare provision?

Pharma may perceive these questions as beyond their remit but no doubt they deserve consideration given that the patient journey is an indispensable tool in devising action plans for patient treatment, implementing support programmes and in communicating the potential benefits and contraindications of the medicine during the post licensing phase. By pharma having first hand knowledge of the ‘patient journey’, it will reveal all the realistic yet unpredictable factors and hurdles at a much earlier stage of development, rather than the 'rose coloured glasses' view of a patient following treatment guidelines in perfect circumstances.

Follow us on Twitter @i3_Consult and our LinkedIn page i3Consult.com. Check our website as well www.i3Consult.com