An Impatient Truth

15 years ago, I introduced the concept of patient centricity at our first ‘Patient Summits’ in London and Philadelphia. At the time, the idea was somewhat alien; pharmaceutical executives were more interested in patient compliance, the science of getting patients to take their medicine as instructed, and driving sales through repeat prescriptions.The existing language of the day was aggressive. It was all about ‘capturing’ market share and ‘dominating’ the minds of customers. I’ll never forget being berated by one delegate because a conference talk had deviated from the agenda – it had morphed into a story about the difficulties the woman had faced as a patient. “That was seriously off-topic; how am I going to report progress back to my managers? I seriously hope that won’t happen again, Paul.”As an impressionable 22-year old, these harsh words hit home, and the conference remained resolutely ‘commercial’ for years. Yet, over time, the presence of patients increased – largely due to their proactiveness – and they were increasingly consulted in agenda design. The introduction of the Patients Included movement in 2010 provided a significant boost; now, a minimum standard of patient involvement was expected. But given that the primary audience was always to be pharmaceutical executives, others were always secondary.This October, we made a breakthrough. Instead of pharma managers dictating the agenda, we handed over the reins entirely to patients. Th...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news