Demystifying Patient Quality of Life

A global pharmaceutical company has an asset currently in development. To inform launch strategy, the team needed to understand what would be impactful for HCPs and patients regarding what this revolutionary, new category of treatment could impact. Early research was primarily conducted with key opinion leaders whose perspective revealed that independence and quality of life are key unmet needs for patients.

We started by framing the work around key decision-makers at various points along the patient journey including HCPs, patients, and caregivers.  In-depth discussions with patients and caregivers dug deeply into ‘daily life’ with the disease, including creating a ‘diary entry’ for a good day and bad day.  This and other creative exercises revealed emotional needs along the patient journey and brought to light a disconnect between patients/caregivers and HCPs regarding a key unmet need that HCPs were not aware of.

Integrating insights across stakeholders in the patient journey can be enlightening. In this case, it identified a new potential opportunity area for our clients to consider with their new treatment and helped us better understand patient quality of life including its components and how the priority of those components changes over time.