Cognitant successfully streamlines a top 10 pharma Patient Support Programme

A top 10 pharma company challenged Cognitant to optimise their Patient Support Programme (PSP) for an injectable medication, with the aim to streamline approvals, save costs, reduce print material volume, and – most importantly – increase the quality and accessibility of support for both patients and caregivers.

Cognitant provided a directive content strategy to ensure that patients and caregivers get the right information at the right time, in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

What’s being done well – what could be done better?

“Effective patient education and engagement can improve treatment outcomes, health, and patient satisfaction¹”

It’s no surprise that effective patient education and engagement can improve treatment outcomes, health, and patient satisfaction.¹ This is of course particularly important for medications that can be injected at home, to ensure they are administered correctly.²

But it’s not just about quality of content; though this is indeed important, it needs to be combined with an effective delivery plan. PSPs can quickly become overly complicated if the patient is thrown too much information in one go.

This project posed an additional challenge: due to the need for wide audience reach, age-appropriate materials and a durable approach. As many in the industry are all too aware, even minor label updates for such medicines can create ‘admin storms’ due to the need for reapprovals and reprints, which come with both financial and environmental costs.

With a significant overhaul ahead of us, we set out to get a comprehensive understanding of any issues – allowing us to devise a simplified, consistent and supportive PSP that meets a wide range of informational needs.

We followed a five-step plan:

Research phases:

1. Conduct an asset audit to assess the effectiveness of current information provision, including medical editorial and clinical review
2. Review the current dissemination pathway to assess whether patients are getting the right information at the right time
3. Direct a strategic workshop to hone in on the issues and gather insights from key stakeholders, aligning with previous qualitative research

Action phases:

4. Deliver a content strategy report, including suggestions that cater to different personas, a multi-channel delivery pathway and a spectrum of content ideas, stratifying by cost and suggested priority
5. Follow an iterative process to refine the strategy based on feedback and create and execute an action plan

Our research showed that, although materials were of good quality, patients received too much information at initiation, content was duplicated, materials weren’t future proofed, and accessibility could be enhanced in line with Patient Information Forum and government recommendations. We also noted that opportunities for data collection and tracking were limited.

“It’s not just about quality of materials… PSPs can quickly become overly complicated if the patient is thrown too much information in one go”

A fresh take on the Patient Support Program

Drawing on our teams’ skillsets and experience in patient communications, we pieced together a detailed content strategy, including:

• a new delivery pathway, refining communication points to ensure patients/caregivers remain engaged and supported throughout their care plan
• suggestions to cull, continue using (with or without improvements) or create content, advising on how to reduce medico-legal approval burden
• blueprints on how to genericise appropriate content, allowing materials to be used appropriately and compliantly
• a single central digital resource allowing information-seekers to find out more information about their condition and treatment

We also made accessibility modifications and advised on opportunities to collect data to monitor the ongoing effectiveness of the PSP.

Our research reflects known themes seen across therapy areas, and the pathway below (Fig. 2) demonstrates how an adult patient receiving treatment for a chronic condition may feel at different points during their care plan. This indicates how informational/support needs change over time, and how different content types may best support them.

Chronic conditions and their treatment: the patient pathway

 

 

We developed a bespoke and detailed patient pathway for the client, to map what content would be used, why it would be used and how it would be delivered. We used a multimedia approach to increase accessibility, engagement, and to cater to different learning styles, ensuring patients and their caregivers feel supported and confident throughout the pathway.

The impact of our solution

The new content plan allowed us to cut the number of PSP materials by 70% by reducing content duplication and genericising appropriate content, whilst retaining all key information and quality of materials

As a result, and vs the previous PSP plan, this is expected to:

• reduce medico-legal approval times, now and in the future
• reduce print material volume, which could result in significant cost savings
• ensure patients receive consistent and cohesive support that is audience appropriate (Fig. 1 provides an example of age-appropriate, character-driven content for children)
• streamline the user journey, ensuring people find high-quality, accurate and reliable support when they need it without feeling overwhelmed

This aligns with Cognitant’s mission: to empower people with clear, reliable health information and Cognitant’s purpose: to help drive better health outcomes; all of which could be achieved via improved patient engagement.¹

Being patient communication specialists, we enjoy complex challenges and devising ways to improve engagement and information offerings. After all, “knowledge is power”, and effective patient support has the ability to reduce anxieties, increase understanding and quality of care, and can positively impact healthcare utilisation.^1,3,4

“This resource has huge value, and thanks to its success will now be adapted for wider use. It is something we can easily keep updated in future as new information is provided, and more data on side effects and regimens are available. It is much simpler and far less overwhelming than the traditional leaflets usually provided to healthcare professionals, patients and caregivers.”

Patient Experience Manager, Global Pharma

To find out more about Cognitant’s services, get in touch or book a demo.

References

1. Marzban S et al. Impact of patient engagement on healthcare quality: a scoping review. J Patient Exp2022;9:23743735221125439
2. Hawthorne J et al. The current paradigm for biologic initiation: a confirmatory quantitative analysis of self-injection training practices. Expert Opin Drug Deliv 2022;19(6):733-42
3. NHS Confederation. The value of patient support programmes. Available at: https://www.nhsconfed.org/system/files/media/FINAL%20NHS%20Confederation%20BRIEFING%20%20309%20%20The%20value%20of%20patient%20support%20programmes_4.pdf. Accessed December 2023
4. Ganguli A et al. The impact of patient support programs on adherence, clinical, humanistic, and economic patient outcomes: a targeted systematic review. Patient Prefer Adherence2016;10:711-25