BMS Employees Embrace Working Together For Patients

By Ed Miseta, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

When you step off the elevator on any floor of the Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D facility in Wallingford, CT, the first thing you will see is a mosaic of a patient, made up of hundreds or thousands of photos of BMS employees. The message the mosaics are trying to convey could not be clearer: We are the patients, and the patients are us. BMS believes every task performed by every employee has to have those patients in mind, and with its new Working Together For Patients program, the company is proud to be sharing that vision for the world to see.

As part of its recent Global Patient Week celebration, BMS introduced the program by launching the website WorkingTogetherForPatients.com. The program was designed to bring to life the unique stories of inspiration and the connection to patients that are part of the everyday lives of BMS employees. It is those stories and connections that drive and inspire them in their everyday work. It also highlights the company’s focus on putting patient lives at the center of everything it does.

BMS has always tried to incorporate the patient voice into internal meetings, but has been doing even more in recent years as patient centricity has become a critical focus for all pharmaceutical companies. The concept of Working Together For Patients was born in early 2014, during a global leadership team meeting. At that meeting, an employee with a connection to a BMS patient stood up and introduced that patient to the leadership team. The story that individual was able to share clearly struck a chord with the audience. Later that day, as other employees stood up to present, each one shared their own personal story of who inspires them in their daily work. At that moment, the idea of Who Are You Working For? was born. Since all employees are ultimately working for patients, the idea eventually morphed into the current Working Together For Patients program.

Every Picture Tells A Story

One of the first things you will notice on the home page of the site is an amazing mosaic that contains 1,100 photos and captions, all submitted by BMS employees around the world, which form an image of four patients being treated with BMS products. The individual photos may be employees, family members, or other close relations, some of whom might be patients. Using their mouse, visitors to the site can zoom in on any of the 1,100 photos to learn more about the individual pictured.    

In addition to the mosaic, the site features a letter from BMS CEO Giovanni Caforio along with videos of employees sharing stories of what they do at BMS, family members who are patients, and how they became affiliated with the company. One of them features Lori Abrams, the director of, diversity, & patient engagement in Global Clinical  Operations at BMS. Every one addresses the importance of each BMS patient, and the quality and content makes each one worth watching at least once.

“Every employee has a story about why they got into the pharmaceutical industry and what brought them to BMS,” notes Abrams. “Each one helps you to understand why we do the work we do, and what those factors are that motivate us on a daily basis. Our belief is that by sharing these photos and stories, we will not only inspire our co-workers, but will help patients and other stakeholders better understand why we work to discover novel new therapies.”

The Focus Of Global Patients Week

This year marks the first Global Patients Week for BMS. It was obviously focused on patients, but also highlighted company employees, many of whom have friends and family members with the same diseases the company is trying to cure. According to Abrams, it was a good opportunity for personnel at all levels of the company to sit back and reflect on the impact their work has done to ease suffering and help individuals live longer, happier lives.

At different facilities throughout the week, employees focused on the diseases and the impact they have on the lives of patients. Abrams and her team took part in a group that focused on a rare disease, as well as patients and caregivers. Her activities during Global Patients Week included sharing stories of the challenges and barriers those patients and caregivers must conquer on a daily basis, especially the challenges related to participating in a clinical trial. The group also focused on what BMS could do to help patients work around those challenges.   

“For example, we looked at how we could make things easier for patients once a clinical trial began,” notes Abrams. “We are looking into how to best keep families together, including the caregivers and even the family dog! The easier we make things for the whole family, the easier this process will be for the patient and the better success we will have at helping them to stay on the trial.”

Each day had different patients, caregivers, physicians, thought leaders, and advocacy organizations coming in and sharing insights and stories about diseases with BMS employees. This was happening in all 51 countries where BMS operates across the globe.  

Bringing All Employees Together

The planning for Global Patients Week was over a year-and-a-half in the making. When the Who Are You Working For? campaign was launched, BMS reached out to employees soliciting personal stories of inspiration. Sarah Koenig, director of public affairs for BMS, notes after reading the stories, the company felt inspired and compelled to share those stories with a broader audience. At that point the internal Who Are You Working For? campaign transformed into the external Working Together For Patients campaign. 

“As part of that original program, employees could not write more than 100 words,” says Koenig. “From that campaign we produced Lori’s story and many others. But most of all, we felt incredibly proud of the contributions of all our employees. This effort seemed to have an especially strong appeal to all of our employees working every day getting medicines to market. It seemed to make people feel that no matter what part of the organization they were in, they were part of the effort to help patients. This was true even of the employees far removed from the patient, such as those in manufacturing and the supply chain.”    

Getting word of this effort out to patients is happening in a variety of ways. According to Koenig, BMS is using all of its channels including the main BMS website, as well as company feeds on YouTube, and Twitter. Additional outreach is being performed via paid media and a press release. Employees are also encouraged to share these stories on their personal social media accounts as well.

“Going forward, we plan to expand on the stories featured on the site with stories from patients as well,” adds Koenig. “Other employee stories will also be published. We have received a large number of these stories that we have only just begun to review. We believe there is a lot of opportunity here to keep everyone focused on patients, but to share those patient stories as well.”

“Having spent more than three years in this patient diversity & engagement position with BMS, I have been able to see firsthand many of the changes we have made in reaching out to patients,” notes Abrams. “With this effort, I think everyone can see that we are sincere in our efforts to truly keep them in mind on everything we do. We bring the voice of the patient into our clinical drug development program, whereas this program will help to bring a lot more exposure to the effort. That is a huge win for my team, BMS, and ultimately, all of our patients.”    

But here’s another thought…next time you hear someone griping about the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and it’s supposed focus on profits rather than patients, have them watch a few of the videos. See if they come away with the same opinion. Or better yet, see if they are able to come away from them without shedding a few tears.