How medicine got it wrong; and how to make it right!

Medicine started off wrong – and, after centuries, we’re still trying to fix it. Right from the start, the focus was always on what’s wrong, rather than who is suffering from the wrong. Medical science has been always problem focused. But in this storyline, the central piece of the puzzle – the patient, and what he or she wants – has been put aside.   

Psychiatry is no exception – in fact, because the brain is the most complex organ, it becomes even more important that patients’ needs are understood beyond the context of a disease or a diagnosis. Psychiatry diagnoses were based on what was observed, rather than what was actually behind it. The patient became a bystander! 

Now we need to turn the triangle on its tip. So instead of starting with disease and diagnosis, the first question to ask would be, “What are the patient's needs?” Only then we can think about a patient-centric path forward and begin to convert science into a meaningful solution.  

The patient needs to be involved at every stage. Traditionally the pharma industry would only involve patients when they had a product ready or close to launch. And then they would ask, what kind of smart branding campaign can we do to get patients to pick up our medicine? That's not patient centricity!  

We need to involve our customers right from the start – and it’s happening now. Patient organisations have found their voice, and they use that voice to talk to the policymakers, the resource creators and the fund providers. They have become part of policymaking.  

At Boehringer Ingelheim, when you look at some of our programmes, it would appear as if we’re focusing on major depressive disorder, or borderline personality disorder. But we didn’t start from there – we started by addressing important fundamental needs. We were interested in providing real help to real people who have a real problem controlling their emotions across the 'diagnoses'.  

We should not just think in terms of patients but also patient units i.e., the whole group of people who are affected by an illness. For people who suffer from significant psychiatric illnesses like schizophrenia or dementia, the caregivers are impacted equally, or sometimes even more than the people with the symptoms. So, they must be part of the dialogue because their needs are as important as the patient’s.  

For industry at our level, we need to be more humble. Just because we make drugs, we shouldn’t try to solve everything with drugs. Last year we started a collaboration with Click Therapeutics who are experts in creating Digital Therapeutic solutions for patients. We invested in it because we strongly believe that some patients’ needs cannot be addressed by drugs alone. We need to stop treating the world like a nail just because we are in the business of making hammers!

If you’re interested in helping to put medicine right, we’re hiring. See our jobs page for more information. 

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