Regions
MAIN/REGIONS
regions/
Regions
  1. Americas
  2. Asia & Oceania
  3. Europe
  4. Middle East & Africa
  1. Solutions
  2. Products
  3. Insights
  4. About
  5. Careers
  6. Contact Us
MAIN/search
MAIN/Solutions
Solutions/
SOLUTIONS
  • Research & Development
  • Real World Evidence
  • Commercialization
  • Safety & Regulatory Compliance
  • Technologies
LIFE SCIENCE SEGMENTS
HEALTHCARE SEGMENTS
THERAPEUTIC AREAS

Impacting People's Lives

"We strive to help improve outcomes and create a healthier, more sustainable world for people everywhere.

LEARN MORE
Harness the power to transform clinical development

Reimagine clinical development by intelligently connecting data, technology, and analytics to optimize your trials. The result? Faster decision making and reduced risk so you can deliver life-changing therapies faster.

Research & Development Overview
Research & Development Quick Links
Real World Evidence. Real Confidence. Real Results.

Generate and disseminate evidence that answers crucial clinical, regulatory and commercial questions, enabling you to drive smarter decisions and meet your stakeholder needs with confidence.

REAL WORLD EVIDENCE OVERVIEW
Real World Evidence Quick Links
See markets more clearly. Opportunities more often.

Elevate commercial models with precision and speed using AI-driven analytics and technology that illuminate hidden insights in data.

COMMERCIALIZATION OVERVIEW
Commercialization Quick Links
Service driven. Tech-enabled. Integrated compliance.

Orchestrate your success across the complete compliance lifecycle with best-in-class services and solutions for safety, regulatory, quality and medical information.

COMPLIANCE OVERVIEW
Safety & Regulatory Compliance Quick Links
Intelligence that transforms life sciences end-to-end.

When your destination is a healthier world, making intelligent connections between data, technology, and services is your roadmap.

TECHNOLOGIES OVERVIEW
Technology Quick Links
MAIN/Products
Products/
CLINICAL PRODUCTS
COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS
COMPLIANCE, SAFETY, REG PRODUCTS
REAL WORLD PRODUCTS

CASE STUDY

"Data in a Day

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Insights
Insights/
BLOGS, WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

Explore our library of insights, thought leadership, and the latest topics & trends in healthcare.

DISCOVER INSIGHTS
THE IQVIA INSTITUTE

An in-depth exploration of the global healthcare ecosystem with timely research, insightful analysis, and scientific expertise.

SEE LATEST REPORTS

INSTITUTE REPORT

"Digital Health Trends 2024 - Implications for Research and Patient Care

READ MORE

EMEA Insights

"IQVIA thought leadership with a focus on EMEA.

Learn more

WHITE PAPER

"DCTs Deliver Big ROI

LEARN MORE

WHITE PAPER

"Capturing value at scale: The $4 billion RWE imperative

LEARN MORE
MAIN/About
About/
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
  • IQVIA Connected Intelligence™
  • IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI™
  • Human Data Science Cloud
  • IQVIA Innovation Hub
  • Decentralized Trials
  • Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices
WHO WE ARE
NEWS & RESOURCES

INVESTOR RELATIONS

"Visit our investor relations site for more information.

LEARN MORE
Unlock your potential to drive healthcare forward

By making intelligent connections between your needs, our capabilities, and the healthcare ecosystem, we can help you be more agile, accelerate results, and improve patient outcomes.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA AI is Healthcare-grade AI

Building on a rich history of developing AI for healthcare, IQVIA AI connects the right data, technology, and expertise to address the unique needs of healthcare. It's what we call Healthcare-grade AI.

LEARN MORE

Your healthcare data deserves more than just a cloud.

The IQVIA Human Data Science Cloud is our unique capability designed to enable healthcare-grade analytics, tools, and data management solutions to deliver fit-for-purpose global data at scale.

LEARN MORE
Innovations make an impact when bold ideas meet powerful partnerships

The IQVIA Innovation Hub connects start-ups with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners. Together, we can help lead the future of healthcare with the extensive IQVIA network of assets, resources, clients, and partners.

LEARN MORE
Proven, faster DCT solutions

IQVIA Decentralized Trials deliver purpose-built clinical services and technologies that engage the right patients wherever they are. Our hybrid and fully virtual solutions have been used more than any others.

LEARN MORE
IQVIA Patient Experience Solutions with Apple devices

Empowering patients to personalize their healthcare and connecting them to caregivers has the potential to change the care delivery paradigm.

LEARN MORE
MAIN/Careers
Careers/
IQVIA Careers
Featured Careers
Stay Connected

WE'RE HIRING

"At IQVIA your potential has no limits. We thrive on bold ideas and fearless innovation. Join us in reimagining what’s possible.

VIEW ROLES
MAIN/Contact Us
Contact Us/
Institute Report
Developing Efficient Patient Referral Pathways for Radioligand Therapies
Healthcare professional insights from Germany, Italy, France, and China
Feb 04, 2025
To download files you must give consent to process your personal data by clicking the "Accept" button below.

Report Summary

Oncology care coordination is a complex process where patients must engage with various healthcare teams across specialties to treat their condition. The patient referral pathway is an important step within this process, requiring efficient and timely management. Many patients often face barriers in accessing necessary care during this process due to the numerous — and at times, unclear — steps involved, causing delays in treatment initiation. These issues are exacerbated for innovative therapies as they often require a new referral paradigm. As less established oncology treatments such as radioligand therapies enter already constrained healthcare systems, clear, efficient, and scalable patient referral pathways will be important in ensuring timely treatment for patients.

The objective of this report is to build upon prior research by the IQVIA Institute to understand the capacity and infrastructure readiness to administer radioligand therapies (RLT) in various geographies. This report focuses on the status of and barriers within the RLT patient referral journey — one of five capacity levers previously identified along with diagnostic capacity, number of RLT centres/beds, regulatory and patient release frameworks, and skilled workforce.

Key findings:

  • The RLT referral process for mCRPC patients in Germany, Italy, France, and China was evaluated through interviews with healthcare professionals (HCPs) with the aim of understanding the current referral pathway, associated barriers, and potential solutions.
    The RLT patient referral pathway typically involves seven key steps.
  • First, the physician confirms the patient’s progression to mCRPC and considers RLT as a possible treatment option. The patient is then referred to a centre capable of administering RLI and RLT. Tests such as PSMA PET-CT scans, blood work, and renal scintigraphy are conducted to establish RLT eligibility.
  • Once these tests are complete, a team of physicians, including oncologists and nuclear medicine physicians, evaluates the results and makes a treatment decision. If the patient is deemed eligible, RLT treatment is initiated, and the patient is closely monitored throughout the process.
  • Several common barriers to an efficient pathway were seen across all geographies. These include a lack of standardized referral pathways, a lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities for different stakeholder groups (e.g., urologists, oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians), and limited RLT infrastructure and/or capacity, particularly for PSMA PET-CT scans, which are used for eligibility testing.
  • Healthcare professionals in Germany, France, and China also reported limited involvement of referring healthcare professionals throughout the patient’s treatment journey as a challenge, as this may result in the lack of continuity for patient support by referring HCPs between and after treatment cycles with RLT administered by nuclear medicine physicians.
  • These variabilities in the patient referral pathway across the selected countries result in differing times from referral to treatment initiation. While this timeline can vary substantially within a country, generally healthcare professionals noted that a minimum of 7 weeks were required in Germany, while in France and China, this was closer to 8–9 weeks and around 11 weeks in Italy. While the assessed geographies differ significantly in patient population, healthcare infrastructure, and capacity to administer RLTs, treatment initiation timelines can range from 7–11 weeks depending on where patients are located.
  • Addressing the identified barriers is crucial for ensuring timely treatment administration. Adopting learnings and approaches regarding RLT referrals across countries and from other therapy areas can reduce treatment delays and potentially improve patient outcomes.
  • Based on the interviews and processes discussed with HCPs and an assessment of current barriers, several proposed approaches were highlighted with the overall goal of establishing clear and efficient RLT patient referral pathways.
  • While an ideal timeline for the RLT patient referral process has not been defined, the differences between countries and existing barriers highlight that there is room for improvement. These identified approaches can potentially reduce the time to treatment initiation by one to four weeks depending on the country and the hospital’s starting point.

Related solutions

Therapeutic & Specialty Expertise

Specialized expertise and customized solutions across 14 therapeutic centers of excellence, including oncology, GI/NASH, pediatrics, neurology and rare diseases.

Oncology

Focus oncology development on the patient, manage trial complexity, and increase predictability and speed.

Contact Us