Scaling Patient Support Programs
Building a model to globally scale PSPs by learning from patient and physician experiences in Canada and Japan.
This project was conducted under a NDA.
​
This page provides an anonymized overview of the project without key details, deliverables or related artifacts.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Why Patient Support Programs?
We worked with the growth strategy, innovation and marketing teams of a global pharmaceuticals company for this project.​
​
Our client wanted to clearly understand patient experiences with specific medical products, physician experiences prescribing these and overall unmet needs. With these insights, the organization hoped to improve patient support programs.
Our team proposed a multi-phased, international approach, focused on first identifying unmet needs and opportunities and subsequently developing and testing concepts through co-creation.
Illustration by Max Kleiner
Goals & Objectives
-
Define the ideal patient support experience by identifying key unmet patient and physician needs and opportunities to encourage aspirational behaviors
-
Validate previously identified moments that matter on the patient journey
-
Test a variety of concepts for new and/or adapted patient support programs
-
Determine essential design principles and considerations for new patient support programs, based on regional dynamics and market maturity
-
Develop a strategic model to share insights from this research to support additional markets in undertaking PSP innovation
Methodology
Given the complexity and diversity of goals of this project, we broke apart needs identification and concept evaluation into separate phases of work. I took over project leadership two months in.
Phase 1: Needs Identification
This phase of research was focused on eliciting details about patients' treatment journeys. We conducted interviews in Canada and Japan to understand and validate:
-
Patient experiences from original diagnosis all the way to continued usage of our client's product.
-
Physician perceptions of patient needs and how they interact with PSP systems across the treatment journey.
After sharing insights through an interim presentation, our team took Phase 1 learnings to develop concepts to be tested in Phase 2 of research.
4 patients
per market
4-6 physicians per market
Phase 2: Concept Co-Creation and Evaluation
Drawing from Phase 1 insights, existing global PSP solutions and prototypes, our team developed illustrated concept cards to test in group sessions.
We facilitated group concept co-creation sessions with a mix of patients, caregivers, physicians and nurses to form a patient care team. These participants provided input from not only how they might interact with the concept, but also a typical patient.
​
Using Miro, concepts were annotated in real-time, rank-sorted and evaluated for usefulness and viability. These insights were then synthesized into an opportunities report.
12 illustrated concepts with descriptions
4 mixed groups of patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses
Facilitated ​ideation and concept development workshops with client teams to support in insights absorption and use.
​
Created audio-video packages with animation to share patient stories and experiences to build empathy for unmet needs.
​
Developed a scalable research plan based on project experience for other global teams to run for local PSP innovation efforts.
​
Compiled a detailed breakdown of concept considerations to support product teams in prioritizing and building them out.
​
Liaised with and wrote custom insights reports for the Canadian and Japanese product marketing teams.​
Please reach out if you are interested in more details about the deliverables and outcomes of this project!
