Active Partners in Research

As companies increasingly integrate patient input into their R&D activities, they are coming to realize that they must also forge strong partnerships with patients and their families if they are to deliver truly patient-centered care. Yet, how do you transform buzzwords like patient engagement, patient voices, patient partnerships from theory into practice?It starts with being more systematic, says Danielle Gerlag, Patient Engagement Lead at  GlaxoSmithKline. “Over the last 10-15 years, we’ve done a lot to get the patient’s voice heard within GSK and there are pockets of excellence where we have engaged with patients in different phases of drug development to get their insight and to understand the patient’s journey and their u nmet needs. We decided recently to use these pockets of excellence to build this into our strategy across the rest of the organization.”GSK created a new group under the leadership of Dr Andrew Benzie called Patients in Partnership, she says. “We’re designing a strategy to get the patient’s voice better incorporated into the drug life cycle from the earliest stage. We’d like to make it a deliberate action for teams; whenever they start developing a drug or designing a clinical study they understand when and how to involve patient s and come to understand what to expect from their involvement.”Capturing the patient voiceThe Patient-Focused Outcomes team plays a big role in matching the science of patient input to unmet needs, sa...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news