"How I Feel" – The Critical Role Of The Patient Perspective And How To Collect It

By Jorge Soler, Melissa Culhane Maravic, Ross Maclean

Most drug developers agree that understanding the patient experience should guide research and development, yet many default to interviews and focus groups and apply them in a formulaic way. This limits the insights that shape decisions about unmet medical needs, trial endpoints, and the patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures used to track how patients feel and function.

This article outlines five complementary ways to capture the patient's voice in real-world settings: individual interviews, focus groups, patient diaries, surveys, and social listening (analyzing public social media posts). For each, it explains strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases. It also shows how modest, well-targeted studies can cost a fraction of a clinical trial program while informing everything from regulatory strategy to payer conversations. If you're struggling to choose the right method for understanding what matters to patients, use this guide to match your research question to the approach that will deliver insights early enough to strengthen your development program.