Focus on Patients

1. What Pharma Can Learn From A Parent Turned Patient Advocate 4/2/2020

   I am humbled and honored to introduce you to Andrew McFadyen — founder of the Isaac Foundation. Andrew is a husband, a father, and an advocate who tirelessly works to advance actionable dialogue around access, care, and policy for patients with rare diseases. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Andrew about the unique challenges that patients and their families face when dealing with serious illness and how we may better serve their needs.

2. How Pfizer Is Using Wearables To Understand The Patient Experience 3/24/2020

   Learn how Pfizer's Early Clinical Development – Digital Medicine and Translational Imaging (DMTI) team works with internal and external partners to integrate technology into clinical trials, so it can gather robust data on how patients experience disease outside of a clinical setting.

3. Inside Janssen’s Systematic Approach To Patient Engagement 3/5/2020

   Learn about the work of Janssen's integrated, cross-functional Global Patient Engagement Leadership Team, which has been tasked with embedding patient engagement into every facet of the organization. Specific examples discussed include the development of a psoriasis symptoms PRO tool, collaborations with HIV patient advocacy groups, and progress measurement via a patient engagement dashboard.

4. Extension Of The Patient: Expanding The Role Of Caregivers In Biopharma Development 2/18/2020

   For medical product developers, the role of the caregiver is increasing as innovation advances. Caregivers may provide input on clinical trial concepts, protocol design, informed consent creation, and may also improve clinical trial recruitment and retention.

5. Twitter Takeovers: Forging Stronger Connections With Patient Communities 2/4/2020

   Learn how Tiburio Therapeutics is using Twitter takeovers, advocacy outreach, and collaboration on social media to enhance the company’s efforts to accurately capture the patient’s voice and ensure it is incorporated into future trial designs.

6. 4 Questions AbbVie Asked To Create More Diverse Clinical Trials 1/17/2020

   Over the five years I have been at AbbVie, the idea of diversity and inclusivity in healthcare was especially relevant to our clinical trials in uterine fibroids. We successfully centered patients in our program by understanding their needs, concerns, and desires, which enabled us to recruit and retain women representative of the patient landscape in this disease state. How? We asked ourselves four important questions.

7. Changing Your Corporate Culture To Hear The Concerns Of Patients 1/2/2020

   We can and should celebrate advances in research and medicine that fundamentally changed the lives of people in my past pulmonary practice years in New York, allowing them to hope and live with HIV infection, lung cancer, lymphangioleiomyomatosis, cystic fibrosis, and more.

8. What Janssen Learned From Listening To Patients In Pre-Approval Access 12/17/2019

   Patient-centricity is a much-used buzz phrase these days; however, the truth is that often the patient voice is neither heard nor heeded when creating initiatives to help them.  This can be particularly true in the pre-approval access space, where seriously ill patients who have exhausted all options are seeking access to potentially lifesaving medicines. In 2018, a first of its kind meeting was convened to hear the global voice of patients in pre-approval access (PAA).  In the EU, PAA is often known as compassionate use (CU), expanded access (EA), or managed access (MA), where the regulatory landscape is widely diverse in its requirements for seeking this form of access.

9. Shared Decision Making & Its Impact On Clinical Trial Consideration 12/3/2019

   Patient participation forms the backbone of clinical research. Surveys reveal that up to 80 percent of patients say they are “somewhat or very willing” to join a clinical trial, yet enrollment levels remain low. For example, only 8 percent of cancer patients ever enroll in a clinical trial, despite substantial resources and efforts being invested in clinical trial advertising, transportation support, and other recruitment and retention activities.

10. Putting Patients First In Clinical Trial Designs — A Multifaceted Approach 11/19/2019

    Patient enrollment is critical to the success of a clinical trial and yet clinical trial designs are not always conducive to the participation of cancer patients. According to a study by Dr. Joseph Unger and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, more than half (55.6 percent) of all cancer patients do not participate in trials because no appropriate trial is available for the patient’s cancer type and stage at the center where they are being treated. Further, when a trial was available, an additional 21.5 percent were ineligible due to exclusion criteria.