EyeForPharma, Philadelphia – Pharmaceutical innovators are getting patients involved in every aspect of drug development, from clinical trial design to commercialization to peer-to-peer support. Here are six of our favorites from the #efpphilly stage:

BMS: Universal Patient Language

The UPL addresses widely voiced concerns among consumers and health care advocates that communications about medicines are not designed for an optimal patient experience. It’s an open source project that worked with patients, caregivers and advocates over two years to co-create new principles and tools designed to change how we talk to patients and caregivers to better foster learning.

Janssen: Patient Voice In Trial Design Program

This approach works to give the patient voice as much impact and significance in the trial design as the many other voices that guide protocol development, including physicians, researchers, and key opinion leaders. One of the key tools is a protocol simulation workshop that helps patients identify tangible improvements in trials that will make the outcomes more relevant to their care and lives.

UCB: Right Start Nurse Program

The CIMplicity® Right Start program is designed to support new patients with right-timed information and answers. It’s a personalized 12-week support journey with seven telephone calls covering key topics from injection training to rheumatoid arthritis management. 500+ new users register monthly. The program has a 67% Net promoter score and users have a 22% improvement in adherence over non users.

Abbott: VertiGO Exercise App

The Abbott India team developed a digital nurse to help people living with vertigo understand simple, repeatable exercises they could use to reduce symptoms. The tools used augmented reality to help them perfect the movements. 100% of the field force has shared the app with physicians and it’s earned over 10,000 downloads.

United Therapeutics: The Skivola project

To help parents talk to their children about a neuroblastoma diagnosis, United Therapeutics developed Skivola, a young red panda who has high-risk neuroblastoma. He has many questions about neuroblastoma, such as “Why am I sick?”, “Did I get cancer because I was bad?”, and “Can I play with other kids when I go to the hospital?” The answers to those questions and many more about built into a storybook series.

UCB: Experts by Experience Panel

This virtual community and panel gives UCB employees across the company a common platform to co-create an innovate with patients. The observations and ideas shared from the real lives of those patients bring a new lens and expertise to a wide variety of initiatives.

About the Author:

As Managing Director of Innovation and Insights for Syneos Health Communications, Leigh is responsible for building and scaling a global team of healthcare experts who together help life science leaders better understand the complex lives, influences and expectations of their customers. Specifically, they uncover actionable insights that fuel empathy and creativity; lead co-creation events that let marketers learn from peers, trends, and new possibilities; and help clients identify the most valuable and useful new customer experiences to create.

Leigh has worked with Fortune 1000 companies to craft their digital, mobile, social and CRM strategies for nearly 20 years.She’s worked for category-leading agencies in retail, public affairs, B2B technology, and higher education. Prior to moving to Syneos Health Communications, she held several leadership roles at our largest agency, GSW.  There, she founded an innovation practice fueled by the zeitgeist and spearheaded digital and innovation thinking across the business.

Leigh has taken a special interest in complex healthcare products that can change lives in meaningful ways. She was recently a strategic lead on the 3rd largest launch in pharmaceutical history: Tecfidera. Before that she had keys roles with Eli Lilly Oncology, Abbott Nutrition, Amgen Cardiovascular, and Eli Lilly Diabetes.

A critical part of Leigh’s work is trends and new ideas. Every year, she convenes a group of trend watchers from across our global network to identify the shifts most critical to healthcare marketers. This year, she led over 250 experts to experts to focus on the most important changes in the commercial, consumer, marketing, digital and healthcare landscapes. (See reports at trends.health)

Leigh is a sought-after writer and speaker. Recognized as one of the most inspiring people in the pharmaceutical industry by PharmaVoice and Top 10 Innovation Catalysts of 2017 by MM&M, Leigh also was recognized  as a Rising Star by the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) for her overt passion, industry thought leadership and significant contributions in new business, strategy and mentoring.