The challenge
Our client was developing a novel therapy for the treatment of a rare disease in which patients suffer acute symptomatic attacks; the main burden of disease is not just the acute attacks themselves, but the unpredictability of these attacks, with implications for daily life that include high background stress / worry levels and a great deal of adjustments to daily life. Our client’s new product promised greater freedom from these acute attacks and therefore from the associated burden. The challenge was to understand why many patients remain on older therapy types and how the pathway to more modern therapy options, with better efficacy and side effect profiles, could be mapped out for physicians and patients. Our client further requested that insights from the research, particularly the patient research, were brought to life in the insights workshop meeting in a new and impactful way.
The solution
We recommended a dual approach of in-depth interviews with HCPs and patients, plus a 6-week mobile app-based engagement with patients, in order to access deeper insight into the impact of the disease on their daily lives. Due to the nature of the disease it was vital to be able to track patient experiences over a prolonged period of time, to understand the true experience of the patient.
The outputs
Specifically in order to bring the detailed patient insights to life, we structured the outputs workshop in a novel way. Rather than relying on the standard PowerPoint presentation, we selected 7 patients whose stories, together, highlighted the key issues that lay at the heart of living with the condition while on older therapy, as well as shining a light on the importance of patient empowerment and a meaningful relationship with the lead physician as a means to accessing a broader set of therapy options. Our graphic design team turned real patient stories into anonymized graphic novel, comic strip format posters and these formed the focus of the insights meeting, providing rapid access to the patient insights and forming the focus of discussion.
The result was an extremely engaging workshop session that allowed the brand team to spend time digesting and discussing the key issues that relate to the stated challenge of moving patients on from older therapy. The traditional PowerPoint report still formed the main deliverable, but this key workshop benefitted hugely from a non-traditional structure more suited to group engagement and strategic discussion.
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