eyeforpharma Philadelphia Awards

May 2, 2016 - May 2, 2016, Philadelphia

The search for the most valuable and innovative patient-centric initiatives

Your New Toolkit for Patient-Centric Change

3 strategies from the Philadelphia Awards finalists show the potential for impact when you approach things differently.



Repeating the same action and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. That is the simple rationale for why we need new design tactics to deliver on the promise of patient centricity; reaching for the same tired approaches won’t deliver different outcomes. While it can be hard to find inspiration, we hope to tackle that with the eyeforpharma Philadelphia awards. In addition to simply recognizing good work, we want to encourage the spread of good ideas that could benefit us all. Check out these three strategies deployed by the ‘Most Valuable Patient Initiative or Service’ finalists.

Work within the eco-system to create incentives for change

Sometimes the obstacle to change cannot be directly affected by your team, so you have to find strategies to influence others to act.

This was the challenge facing UCB, when they worked with the Epilepsy Foundation to understand the pressures fueling high hospitalizations with Epilepsy patients; data had shown that 1/3 of patients were not in control of their seizures.

Peer-reviewed literature documented that access to newer anti-epileptic therapies and specialty care would dramatically improve outcomes, but the appetite to change the standard of care was weak nationally. UCB and the Epilepsy Foundation created scorecards (The Report Cards) to rank each state on standards of care, to raise the visibility of existing barriers to care.

The project is also creating the tools for others to act as well; the data on performance is being used to galvanize and support patient actors lobbying for political change.

Sanofi Pasteur also deployed tactics to create system change with their submission, the “Quality Mindset” program.

While vaccines are amongst the most effective global public health interventions, their deployment is hugely hindered by the availability of quality supply. It is a huge challenge to maintain workforce standards across remote supply chains.  

Sanofi Pasteur had a good history with grassroots strategies. Their ‘Diversity in the Workplace’ program managed to recruit 2,500 activists in 50 countries to challenge perspective. They tried to test similar tactics to ‘shift culture’ and address the failing standards within vaccine supplies.

They pivoted from a disciplinary approach towards encouraging pride in the quality of work. By creating the space for local employees to take leadership on discussions on supply quality, they’ve seen surprisingly high engagement. In one location, employees created an ‘awards for improvement’ competition and challenged their own leadership to participate. In another site 92 shop floor operators used their break between sessions to brainstorm new approaches, generating 258 proposals for improvement.

Open innovation can empower patients to lead design

We’ve seen a rise of open innovation strategies across pharma (check out Customer Innovator nominee Marianne Fraiture’s work for an excellent example in Diabetes), proving that pharma can get results from taking a step back and letting others lead innovation.

Novartis tried this model in their project COPD Crowdshaped, which brought together technologists, actors, journalists, engineers and data scientists to brainstorm solutions for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

As teams, they generated 100 new ideas which were condensed into 7 umbrella themes. They used these themes to create an extra layer of open-innovation by synthesizing the ideas into short videos that were shared online with thousands of epatients in the COPD community. Viewers were encouraged to comment, with insights taken back to the event participants in a participatory redesign session. After just 12 weeks two of the seven ideas have developed prototypes, one of which will be deployed in John Hopkins Hospital.

Cross disciplines and involve behavioral science

Both Pfizer, with their Lipitor Choice Points program, and Allergen, with their Pharmacy Intervention Program, embedded behavioral science strategies in their service models for patient adherence.

Pfizer incentivized patients to engage with disease education and adherence reminders by linking engagement to redeemable points for donations to pre-selected charities. Using points was a strategy to give participants an immediate reward for the treatment of a condition that usually only shows results in the longer-term. With a huge 124% decrease in gap days (days late to refill), they seem to be on to something.

Allergan’s Pharmacy Intervention Program used a more direct approach to keep patients engaged. Patient Support Representatives were deployed to call Glaucoma patients who enrolled in co-pay services but hadn’t used their card.

The reps would work to uncover barriers on a case-by-case basis and then offer support. Impressively, 40% of patients reached then filled their prescription, versus only 6% of patients who were not engaged. That’s considerable progress.


Follow these 5 innovators and others as they battle it out for industry recognition at this year’s eyeforpharma Philadelphia Awards

 



eyeforpharma Philadelphia Awards

May 2, 2016 - May 2, 2016, Philadelphia

The search for the most valuable and innovative patient-centric initiatives