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Todays busy patients and doctors eagerly seek out information on disease states and treatments from objective, easily accessible sources. And in this environment, patient communication programs provide a unique opportunity for pharmas to build relationships with patients, improve outcomes and boost brand reputation among physicians and other stakeholders, concludes a new report, Designing Effective Patient Communication Programs, from Cutting Edge Information. 

Patient communications programs are campaigns designed by drug makers to reach the end users of their products. Programs can include educational material, adherence programs or disease awareness campaigns.

But designing a cohesive, objective and effective program can prove difficult given the number of choices that must be made before launching such a campaign. The communication tools available to pharmas are numerous and diverse ranging from brochures and call centers to Web 2.0 activities such as blogs and social networking sites. A well-designed program will consider brand goals as well as the needs of the patients served, the authors say.

Brands treating disease states likely to affect older people will benefit from one-on-one programs, for example, while drugs used by younger patients are more likely to see results from internet-based initiatives, says Jeremy Spivey, lead analyst on the research from Cutting Edge Information. Even a brand with a relatively low budget can find ways to implement a program based on multiple tools and activities.

Hitting the mark

The content, however, is ultimately more important than the method of delivery.

A concise and accessible brochure will be far more effective than an extensive multimedia website filled with information that is too dense to understand, Spivey says. But there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to specific communication tools. Videos, web content, print brochures: the right instrument depends on the audience.

Some environments are more effective than others for delivering information, however. Patient marketing teams, the group says, rank the doctors office as the most important place to reach patients. People are far more receptive to health education when they are visiting a physician and they trust content found in waiting and exam rooms, they say.

But brand teams accustomed to targeting doctors may be pushed out of their comfort zone when instead trying to reach end users. Marketers and agencies have to adjust for end users, who face an entirely different set of concerns than doctors do, says Spivey.

Finding just the right level of objectivity is another challenge. Doctors and consumers prefer content free of promotional messages, so the right mix of branded and unbranded content depends on the brand goals, the group says. Teams also must be careful to keep content simple for ease in understanding by patients.

Even the most educated consumers tend to have very little medical knowledge, they are still actively researching diseases and treatments, says Spivey. If they are discouraged by the materials length or complexity or their emotional responses to a diseases effects are difficult to manage they may stop reading.

Building relationships with DTP programs

For brands pursuing direct to patient communications, the Internet offers the chance to provide information while building lasting relationships with and among consumers. Multimedia content, adherence and disease management programs and peer-to-peer forums can provide resources for patients with questions about a drug or increase disease awareness for conditions treated by a brand.

Patients should always be the most important group in the design of DTP programs, says Spivey. Whether the material is aimed at increasing awareness, mitigating side effects or improving adherence, its effectiveness will be determined by its usefulness and accessibility, he says.

But teams also must consider other stakeholders. Medical professionals such as doctors and nurses are still a key secondary audience, he reminds us. An endorsement by a physician dramatically increases the chance that a patient will read and trust the information.

And some diseases such as Alzheimers, Parkinsons, diabetes and heart conditions often occur in patients who require the assistance of caregivers, making them another important audience. They have unique needs of their own such as understanding how to talk to the person under their care about the condition, the group says.

Also, in some countries, pharmacists are an important audience to consider when crafting materials. Their endorsement of materials builds credibility.

Shoring up support

Last but not least, teams should remember to include strategies for measuring the effectiveness and ROI of their DTP programs, Spivey says. Without some form of provable ROI, resources may dry up as senior decision makers question program efficacy, he says.

But there is no measurement plan that fits every brand. Patient communication teams must adapt their current ROI portfolios to directly represent their efforts on behalf of the brand, the group says. To do this, many have turned to qualitative measures, which provide indicators of success, they say.

For example, one brand team interviewed for the study frequently contacts all physicians in its program to gather feedback on the patient brochures and other materials left in the doctors office.

Leadership understands the value of happy physicians, says Spivey. But patient communications teams must adjust measurement efforts to their particular needs or risk decreased funding and staffing allotments.

To learn more about designing and implementing patient communication strategies and programs, be sure to visit www.cuttingedgeinfo.com