Patient Engagement and Clinical Support
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Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
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Developing IQVIA’s positions on key trends in the pharma and life sciences industries, with a focus on EMEA.
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Empowering Patients: Transforming healthcare through innovative engagement services
Dec 09, 2024
Patient support and engagement services play a crucial role in modern healthcare, especially in the management and delivery of medication and treatment, however there are various challenges, and the current system is not fully optimised to meet patient needs effectively. Through exploring digital solutions and a patient-centric-approach, we can better understand the opportunities to improve services for better patient outcomes.
Patient engagement and activation
Patient engagement goes beyond simply providing medication, administration or instructions, it requires actively involving patients in their treatment. The concept of patient activation involves encouraging patients to take an active role in managing their own health.
Companies are focusing on patient engagement through two main avenues, home care and digital engagement. Home care services, which typically involve the delivery and administration of medication (whether through injections, infusions, or tablets), are often seen as beneficial as they save patients having to come to hospital to collect their prescriptions as well as saving hospitals 20% on drug costs through VAT. These services also support medication adherence, but they face challenges such as competitive pricing that can lead to a standardised delivery that is not managed as well as it could be1.
Digital engagement, on the other hand, presents an opportunity to enhance patient support by providing educational resources. However, it often lacks interactivity and integration with existing healthcare systems, such as home care services or consultants' dashboards for electronic patient records. This can reduce engagement as clinicians find themselves overwhelmed by multiple product bespoke digital platforms, which decreases their interest in using these platforms effectively.
The need for better integration and feedback
There is currently a lack of feedback from patient support programmes (PSPs) back into the NHS and PSPs can operate in an "echo chamber" where their value is not effectively communicated to healthcare providers. Life sciences companies need to focus on capturing the impact of their programmes, including patient experiences and outcomes, and report these back to the NHS to demonstrate the true benefits of these initiatives.
Currently, PSPs have a low uptake globally, with only about 3% of eligible patients participating. The UK, considered one of the more advanced markets, still only sees around 10% of patients identified for these programmes. This is more an issue of adoption rather than the efficacy of the PSPs themselves and this is part of a wider challenge around the delay in adoption of new medicines in the UK, with less than 80% of patients receiving NICE-approved medications within four years of their launch.
Pre-prescription engagement: a missed opportunity
While most PSPs operate post-prescription, there is an opportunity for digital engagement to begin earlier in the treatment pathway. For instance, an NHS-certified app utilised by clinicians and patients at the point of referral could prepare patients for their appointments, collect patient-reported outcomes and experiences (PREMS and PROMS), and even initiate remote monitoring.
This proactive approach would allow healthcare providers to make more informed decisions, such as when to escalate a patient's treatment to biologics based on real-time data from the app. This level of integration could reduce the number of appointments needed for biologic initiation and streamline treatment pathways, improving both patient outcomes and system efficiency.
Moving from product-centric to patient-centric PSPs
One of the most important shifts is moving from a product-centric view of PSPs to a patient-centric approach. PSPs currently often focus on getting patients on specific medications, but a broader view is needed to address the barriers within patient pathways that prevent access to treatments. Some of these barriers, like waiting times and access to healthcare professionals, are not directly related to the medication itself but can significantly impact outcomes.
Adopting a patient-centric pathway would focus on the entire journey of the patient, identifying and addressing obstacles early on. For example, the introduction of a clear and accessible "digital front door" (a digital platform for patients to access NHS services) could improve access to care and reduce waiting times. By understanding these blockages, PSPs could be designed to better support patients throughout their healthcare journey, not just at the point of medication delivery.
Collaborative programmes for long-term impact
PSPs need to be designed to have a lasting impact on the NHS. These programmes should be co-created with the NHS and designed so that they can be continued independently. For example, an industry provided patient activation programme should be something the NHS would want to commission because of its clear benefits in managing patient outcomes and reducing system strain.
To demonstrate the value that PSPs bring, NHS England, through VPAG Chapter 3, has committed to creating and managing a new PSP database to increase the visibility and wider use of existing PSPs across the NHS in England.
IQVIA has been working on collaborative programmes in areas like cardiovascular disease (CVD) and respiratory care, using digital tools combined with pharmacist/nurse led facilitation to support patient engagement. These programmes focus on population health management, identifying patients with specific conditions and engaging them in pretreatment through digital apps, facilitating administration and monitoring response to treatment. By integrating patient feedback with clinical data, these programmes ensure that patients are fully engaged in their treatment, with timely intervention when necessary.
Conclusion: the future of patient support services
There are several areas where patient support and engagement services could be improved. The shift from product-centric to patient-centric approaches, better integration of digital tools with clinical systems, and the importance of continuous feedback loops into the NHS are all crucial steps towards making these services more effective. Additionally, pre-prescription engagement and the co-creation of sustainable programmes with the NHS will ensure that patient support services not only benefit patients in the short term but also leave a lasting impact on the healthcare system.
There also needs to be consideration around how collaborative working can incorporate population need and ensure access to these programmes doesn’t contribute to the widening health inequalities in the UK. This will ultimately lead to better patient outcomes, more efficient treatment pathways, and a more sustainable healthcare system.