The Power of User Research: 6 effective tips to make your research a success

Over the past 10 years I have been fortunate enough to meet lots of patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) across multiple healthcare settings – from small primary care surgeries to dispensaries and even large intensive care units. During my career I’ve worked as a receptionist, admin assistant, healthcare assistant and had the experience of being a patient and caregiver myself. So, in my current role in clinical trials, it is those experiences, patient stories and first-hand insights, that I always come back to. The time I’ve been able to spend with doctors, surgeons, nurses, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists and, of course, patients themselves has been invaluable in leading a patient-first mindset within my team. Their experiences remind us why we do what we do and inspire us to do the best possible work we can.

“Patient centricity” has been a term frequently used by the pharmaceutical industry and we’ve seen great strides be made by incorporating feedback from patients, advocacy groups and HCPs to help develop medicines and design clinical trials. At a recent Cancer Research UK conference, we heard from patients representing the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) groups. Initiatives like these are fantastic at gathering feedback at every stage of research and development and their dedication to improving the patient experience is impressive.

Last year at Faze, we spoke to over 100 patients which enabled us to put the patient voice front and centre in proposal responses, prospective opportunities, and client work. Gaining insights from multiple patient and caregiver perspectives allows us to understand their needs and helps us devise new approaches to engage patients and provide them with a seamless experience when joining a trial.?

The benefit of talking to people is obvious. However, I have sat in too many talks at conferences and client calls, where I still sense resistance or apprehension as well as a lack of investment in this space. It is not good enough to continue to say, “we need to speak to patients”. We need to be actively showing people the ?benefit of incorporating and championing the patient voice.

I’m also a strong believer that we shouldn’t contain these conversations to discovery research at the start of protocol design. Pharma should be striving to go a step further by speaking to the actual people who are engaging with the products and services, and in my case, clinical trials. What did they think of your advertising? Did it resonate? Watch how someone navigates your recruitment website and pre-screener – it’s only then you will see what causes a patient to hesitate. Gather real feedback on your sites – what were the experiences like on the phone and at the site? How did the experience differ for a patient who was eligible vs. ineligible? All of these questions can be answered and should be answered if we’re to innovate and improve the clinical trial experience.

If you’re struggling to know where to start with user research, I’ve compiled some key factors to consider that can make your research a success:

#1 Establish close partnerships with specialist vendors

The right vendor will enable close collaboration that pairs customer experience or design research specialists on both sides.? By working together, specialist vendors can co-design research studies that answer your research questions and unlock valuable insights that will better your patient experience projects.

#2 Know your knowledge gaps

Sponsors usually have a large amount of previous knowledge, but in organisations this can be difficult to locate and synthesize. To make the most of patients’ time, it’s critical to gather all available user research that has previously been conducted to see which areas you lack knowledge in and where you want to delve deeper. The right preparation ensures that the future research answers new questions and adds value, rather than repeating insights and wasting valuable budget.?

#3 Design the research itself to be patient centric.

Do your research respondents have cognitive impairments, mobility issues or physical symptoms that may impact their ability to talk continuously for 90 minutes without a break? In previous research design, we have split research into shorter chunks or asked patients to complete “pre-work” prior to an interview. We could then use the interview time for follow-ups and open-ended questions that would most benefit from live commentary. Designing research that is inclusive for all needs and abilities is the only way we will gather diverse and rich insights.

#4 Create repeatable research for benchmarking

There is the potential to benchmark where your process and services started, their overall scores and the feedback. And over time, if the survey is repeatable, you will be able to measure how well you have optimised the process and identify where it still needs work. Without this clarity on how well you are delivering on your objectives, patient centricity efforts can likely fail.

#5 Turn insights into action

Uncovering insights is just the first step – what we do with them next is even more important. The final step in great research is to ensure that insights are connected to strategies for change. To do so, insights should be combined again with existing knowledge, prioritised in terms of severity and impact to patient experience, and connected to potential solutions. This means that the research does not need to point to new innovative ideas but instead to incremental improvements that lead to meaningful change. Which brings me onto my final point...?

#6 Think of innovation in all forms

It is easy to think of innovation as big new ideas, but research can determine if you need to improve your existing products and services to address the customers’ needs first. Sometimes it’s these iterative improvements and smaller ideas that can have a big impact on the patient experience and recruitment funnel.

I hope some of what you have read has resonated and will make you think twice about removing patient research from a scope of work (if you happen to be a sponsor). Deep empathy and understanding of “real-world” patients and their experiences is the first step in ensuring continuous improvements and should not be pushed aside. It isn’t always easy, but it’s increasingly possible to do so in compliant ways so don’t give up!

Ultimately, impactful research can lead to meaningful change for the most important customers we serve: our patients.

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