Data, listening, and why patients are my gurus!

If you move from clinical practice into the industry,?you're?often asked how you create meaningful value? But for me,?it is?more than that.?It's?about creating value?that's?accessible?for others.???

I’ll be honest with you – when the pharma industry talks about value, they usually mean commercial value. It's understandable – this is a big machine which?must?be sustained to create profit to drive more growth. This is not all bad – pharma has been instrumental in providing access to medicine for billions of people around the planet.??

But value?must?be more than that. Most industries have learned that if you keep on using one model, you eventually reach a saturation point, and?one has to?start asking, “Am I providing sustainable value for my customers?” And pharma is no exception.??

For example, in psychiatry, people have been making antipsychotic medicines for schizophrenia for decades. And?they’ve?been getting better – easier to take, with less side-effects. Hence, we are producing incremental value. But the patient is still asking – what about my cognitive symptoms? Why is my mind dull? When will I be sharp enough to go back to work? I feel asocial – I?can't?talk to people. How can I address that??That's?why?value generation?has to?be?continuous and?aligned to patient needs.??

Technology is helping us address this in multiple ways.?First of all, there is the power of data. There is an immense amount of insight which has?been till?date locked up in hospital health records and databases. It can tell us about patients’ interactions, patient behaviour and their drivers for seeking health care. We are now using this data to understand patients’ needs and their interactions within the health system.???

Data is also allowing us to look at unconventional ways of measuring things. Most of what we measure in psychiatry is very subjective and qualitative. If I ask how?you're?feeling in your head, I?have to?convert your answer into pseudo-quantitative data to put into a statistical model. These tools are?really?clunky?– there are recall and other biases, and placebo response is?also?an issue.???

So,?we are running programs trying to find digital surrogates for human emotions?and behaviours.?These?new waves?of biomarker –?the?digital markers?–will be critical in predicting and?identifying?treatment responses to create?novel solutions?in psychiatry.??

As well as?the?hi-tech solutions, we should never forget the low-tech route of simply listening. Our?recent?Global Patient?Partnership?Summit brought together?more than 500 participants from?around the world to look at the relevant topics in a collaborative and co-creative way. It leads to a sense of?humility because?you realise how much unmet need still is out there. Patients were my earliest teachers; and the more you know, the more you realise what you?do not!?You begin to understand how much you still?have to?learn from your gurus – the patients around the world.??

If you’re interested in a career with us, we’re hiring. See our?jobs page?for more information.?

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