Partnering with patients to improve healthcare outcomes

I have always believed in the need to evolve healthcare systems to be more patient-centric. It’s a belief that has grown stronger over the past eighteen months during which I have had the great privilege to meet with courageous patients and the people who care for them as they navigate a healthcare landscape altered by COVID-19.?

It’s clear that the pandemic has had a profound and far-reaching impact, with delays in diagnosis and in accessing treatment across the entire spectrum of care. It’s also clear that some of the innovations adopted rapidly during the pandemic – especially in digital and remote care – have significant potential in making healthcare more tailored to the patients in the future.????

Actively listening to those best placed to guide us

Today’s publication of the International Experience Exchange with Patient Organisations (IEEPO) 'Action for Change: Transforming Healthcare Together' event report is an important milestone in the journey towards humanised healthcare. I was honoured to participate in one of the action workshops, which brought together patient advocates from across the world to identify the action needed to build more compassionate, sustainable and resilient healthcare systems and achieve the calls to action set out in IEEPO’s landmark 2021 position paper Humanising Healthcare: a call for transformational change

The action workshop?I participated in focused on how we can improve equal access to healthcare for those living in rural or remote areas – exploring the need for health technology innovations to enable better diagnosis, monitoring and accessible care management for all.

What I took away from the great discussions with the patient community during the workshop was a sense of urgency for the transformation needed for healthcare systems to better centre on patients and their needs, a greater emphasis on the vital role multi-stakeholder collaborations must play in making that transformation happen, and a new sense of optimism that these changes are achievable.?

A defining moment for tomorrow’s healthcare

We are at a pivotal moment for defining the future of healthcare. An unprecedented convergence of medical knowledge, technology and data science are working together to revolutionise healthcare research and development and this, ultimately, has the potential to dramatically improve outcomes for patients. But this potential can only be realised if patients are placed front and centre in our vision for the future of healthcare and in the action we take to make that future a reality.?

What does taking action to humanise healthcare look like?

I am very proud of the collaborative work we have done in many places around the world.? A great example of this comes from Greece: During the pandemic, long distances to hospitals, travel restrictions and the very real fear of catching the virus threatened to disrupt cancer treatment for patients. By partnering with the country’s largest cancer hospital and working closely with patients to understand their challenges, the team developed a new treatment framework which showed – and provided the evidence base for – how medicines and care could be delivered to patients at home without compromising safety.?

The result was a change in law that enabled direct-to-patient delivery of cancer care, in the comfort and safety of their own homes. By working together, Roche, the hospital and patient organisations were able to deliver systemic change: they transformed an area of healthcare delivery to humanise it and ensure it met the needs of the patients it served. It’s a powerful example of what we can achieve when we solve problems together.?

Increasing access to those in need

The industry’s collective response to COVID-19 demonstrated how effective collaboration can be in responding to urgent patient needs. But it also highlighted vulnerabilities in our healthcare systems and shone a bright light on what these mean for patients.?

We know that in many countries, particularly in low- and lower middle-income countries (LMICs), too many patients still cannot access the innovative treatments they need – treatments which often require specialised care pathways and medical infrastructure that isn’t always in place. To address this challenge, we are accelerating our ongoing efforts with the goal to double the number of patients receiving our innovative therapies in LMICs by the end of 2026. We are putting access to our medicines and diagnostic tools at the centre of our business because access is a fundamental part of shifting towards sustainable healthcare that puts people first.?

Now is the time for collective change

To shape healthcare systems that truly work for patients, caregivers and society, our industry must come together with patients, policy makers and healthcare providers and take a truly collaborative, patient-centric approach to driving change. I always learn when I speak with patient representatives, and the virtual “Patient Café” meetings with candid discussions during the pandemic were extremely insightful. I believe everyone working in the healthcare industry could benefit from reading and reflecting on the key takeaways published in IEEPO's report. Because collaboration is the key to improved healthcare outcomes – and the future starts now.

With my thanks to: Ines Hernando, Frederic Destrebeq, Nicola Bedlington, Antonella Cardone, Raquel Peck, Bastian Hauck, Susan Thornton, Maira Caleffi, Mayra Galindo Leal, Nicole Boice, Durhane Wong-Rieger, Kawaldip Sehmi, J?rg Rupp, Giuseppe De Carlo, Michael Oberreiter, Justine Hibbert, Andy Walker, Fernando Arnaiz, Yuvi Gill, Ina Meyer.?

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