How to Increase Adoption Rates for a Patient Support Program

A patient support program is a gift of caring that pharma companies, with the support of healthcare providers, offer their patients. In fact, it is a gift of caring that keeps on giving. But most patients do not know about them. They still think that once they are provided with the medication and as they receive treatment from the healthcare provider, the pharma company really has no role to play in their journey towards good health. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. This is where a patient support program becomes important, especially in scenarios where the patient receives critical care.

But has the awareness improved in recent years? The growing number of PSP-related publications in Europe in the last 10 years confirms that there is a large percentage of the population who have recently started viewing PSP with greater curiosity or are considering or have already enrolled in one. This brings us to pose the obvious question. What can be done to improve the reach of PSPs in other parts of the world, especially in regions wanting quality healthcare systems?

Increasing Adoption Rates in a Patient Support Program

So, what are the things to consider when driving adoption when starting a patient support program? There are several things that pharma companies can do to increase patient adoption in the patient support programs, no matter the demographic, the financial capabilities or the health needs of the individual.

1. Address Patient Needs Directly

Patients have unique needs. Generally, a patient enrolled for a patient support program joins for these three reasons: Adherence Support, Financial Assistance and Clinical Support.

Regimen management and monitoring

The patient support program must try and address the complexity of the regimen. A nurse navigator must convince the patient that opting for a PSP will help him/her manage the regimen better. Side effects from the drug may also discourage the patient from taking a drug. Having a PSP also helps in adverse event reporting in such instances. Conveying this fact too to the patient can help improve PSP adoption.

Plan management and reimbursement

Many treatments require a lot of money. Financial assistance can lead to better treatments, improving the overall QoL for the patient, providing timely care and reducing stress and worry. It also ensures uninterrupted care for the patient. The reimbursements due can be managed by the pharma company itself and they can track each patient’s recovery.

Clinical Support

Sometimes the patient is unable to travel or finds some drugs to be inaccessible to buy. In the first case, the pharma, in partnership with the healthcare provider (HCP), can help provide support at the patient location or provide therapy and continued support through telehealth. Some drugs may be inaccessible for the patient too.?

2. Spread awareness and dispose of any confusion

The patient needs to be educated about the disease. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness is not a localized challenge: it is estimated that around 40% of all patients with liver cancer are not diagnosed until the disease is in a late stage, when treatment options are very limited.

Pharma companies must build partnerships with patient groups, hospitals and health organizations around the world to increase awareness of diseases such as cancers, hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, HPV, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, where a patient support program makes a big difference. pharma companies must also partner with community leaders to further spread awareness across the globe.

The websites and newsletters must give clear, relevant and up to date information about the disease or condition. This information must reach the patients somehow either by signing them up to a mailing list or by conveying the information through the HCP. All these things will help increase patient adoption of the PSP.?

3. Be compassionate, because compassion always wins

Providing care with compassion for each patient is key for adoption. The patients who have already come to you will stay on with you not just for the high quality of care but the way it is dispensed. Understanding each person’s thinking process on a deeper level is very important to ensure you talk to them in the right manner. A capable psychologist is a very valuable asset.

And the benefits of such an approach become visible almost immediately. They will not only remember how you helped them with medication adherence and provided remote assistance but also how courteously you spoke to them, if you acknowledged their condition in the best manner possible, and if you provided them the comfort they truly deserve.

4. Define and Communicate the Goals of Your Program Clearly

Your PSP must help the patient achieve some positive and well-defined results. To do this, you must define the goals of your PSP clearly. Help them understand how you will reduce the burdens of accessibility, viability and continued support and availability through a PSP.

Also, show them how you will integrate the various program services, beginning with physicians moving to therapy providers, pharmacies and even pharmacovigilance and how immediate access to data helps quick and positive outcomes for the PSP.

Explain how you will be personalizing the programs for each patient, perhaps with the application of AI and deep learning which will build customized solutions based on treatment history, patient preferences etc. AI can also help analyze the quality of patient-provider interactions, intervention effectiveness and the evolution of clinical outcomes. ?

5. Prepare Strong Adoption Drives and Support Specialists

Convey the value before putting out enrollment barriers. Using a valid prescription, the concerned patient can get access to initiation guidance, care pathways, and redundancy procedure details in case of critical conditions. Educate the patient on how this can be made possible. Organize adoption drives in every community and encourage enrollment. Allocate support specialists for each enquiry that is made and ensure adoption and regular follow up.

6. Go Digital for Optimum Patient Care

Pharma companies need to provide virtual care offerings that can guide patients remotely with just as much efficacy as in-person. A digital app for the PSP can really help the pharma company and the healthcare provider reach their goals.

Many patients may be reluctant or not have the necessary resources to go to a nearby point of care. And since remote care has continued to persist even after Covid-19, virtual care may be provided even at the time of treatment initiation, with a proper introduction to the product or the services involved.

Pharma giants must provide an easy to deploy and compliant tool that can work globally without any issue, rather than developing applications or websites locally for the treatment of each condition. Imagine the number of applications, the confusion and the mismanagement that can result and the infrastructure that will be required. ?

As a bigger pharma company, you would be uniquely positioned to develop the right digital workflows and solutions too, for continued care of the patients. Mobile penetration is very high, with almost every patient anywhere having access to a smartphone. Having an app can also remarkably increase engagement levels for the PSP, as more and more patients engage with the app.

Future Opportunities

Several factors such as rising national healthcare expenditure, the investment by the government in HCIT initiatives and the presence of skilled IT professionals in Asian countries, like India and China, are expected to drive the growth of patient engagement solutions in Asia. And this includes patient support programs.

Patient needs are changing with time and their demands are increasing. To continue to provide the support that patients demand, patient support programs also need to evolve. Digital-first care and support, increasing use of telehealth and advancements in AI will all contribute in a big way to improving patient support programs and encouraging adoption in the future.