Contributor: Lynda Brown-Ganzert
To learn more about Lynda, click here.
Ten years ago, after experiencing my own health challenges, I started on a mission to provide every patient with a type of ‘social health prescription’ - a personalized, private way for anyone facing a health challenge to get trusted support, information, and navigation. Along with a brilliant team, we developed a privacy and regulatory compliant technology platform, embedded with safe AI, now used by patients and doctors around the world. Our ‘No Patient Alone’ mission remains at the heart of what we do every day. But ten years is a long time, and I’m troubled by what is being touted as the promise of AI in healthcare, without thoughtful conversation on how to design for the needs of patients and stakeholders.
The profound significance of the 'person' at the center of the healthcare journey can easily become overshadowed by technology. The tapestry of a person's values, personalities, and unique attributes plays a pivotal role in shaping their experience with illness and treatment. Recognizing and understanding the human aspect is crucial for delivering truly patient-centered care, but how do you do that at scale? And is it possible to transform healthcare alongside business growth?
I reached out to speak with patients, healthcare, and pharma leaders to get their perspectives, including Jennifer Tremblay, a Global Brand Leader at Sanofi. “If you can make your patients' lives better, while making a business case and securing investment, then that’s a triple win, and you’ll get more people on board and make meaningful and transformative change,” Jennifer noted.
Design and choose technology that delivers on the ‘triple win’.
When we acknowledge the diverse ways individuals cope with their conditions, their cultural backgrounds, their personal preferences, and build that into technology design, we move closer to realizing personalized medicine, in all its facets, and transforming healthcare. Integrating these aspects into the healthcare landscape ensures a more holistic and empathetic approach, one that resonates with the lived experiences of individuals, fostering a deeper connection between healthcare providers and patients.
So then, how can change be made when it comes to providing more personalized experiences?
Build technical solutions that empower stakeholders and the change they want to make.
Much like embarking on a journey, patients navigate through various stages of their healthcare experience. A thoughtful approach to patient care involves not only considering the ultimate destination – a state of improved health or well-being – but also acknowledging the diverse ways in which individuals want to 'travel' towards that goal. This encompasses tailoring treatment plans, communication styles, and support mechanisms to align with the preferences and values of each patient.
I also spoke with Leah Rowntree, who has recently entered recovery from Stage 3 breast cancer, about the subject of patient journeys. During her cancer treatment, she felt as though she wanted more information in order to feel more assured in her treatment journey. As a patient who was under a great deal of stress embarking on her cancer treatment journey, she felt she didn’t have enough information to advocate for herself or to even know what she was asking for.
She discovered there was an information gap, and that being a patient in need of information, but not knowing exactly what information she needed, caused a higher level of stress than was necessary. “What I really wanted to know was what the next year of my life in treatment was going to look like. I was going in blind. There are people that I have met who have been recommended certain treatments, but they refuse to take them due to their values (movement, quality of life, etc.). If the healthcare provider knew these values at the outset, and open, informative dialogue about risks and expectations were laid out, they might have chosen to take that option” says Leah.
“Everyone is different when it comes to values, the level of risk they’ll take or pain they’ll tolerate. This should be taken into consideration, but it often isn’t. That is why I think we're really far away from being at the point of understanding those patient journeys and personalizing them. How can you help me navigate when I don’t know the destination?” said Leah.
Every journey is different. Personalization goes beyond the quantitative.
During my conversation with Jennifer, we discussed how the systems and regulations that are set up to increase patient safety can often leave the patient feeling more isolated. Even though they may be well intended, they sometimes prevent us from being able to empower and inform patients. One of the ways in which Jennifer envisages a future of improved patient outcomes is through supporting patients to be able to connect with peers or healthcare providers on their own terms.
“The value in that kind of patient support is beyond any metric that we can see in other areas of treatment. At Sanofi, when we created the Connectedness Scale, support was one of the main pillars. Fostering a community of people living with the same disease allows them to form close bonds, be a source of information and knowledge transfer, and improves the outlook for their lives living with a disease. What we’ve seen is that their treatment never operates in a vacuum and that learning is really important in everything we do going forward,” states Jennifer.
“Using technologies like RxPx, we’ve been able to match people to help find those connections to help them in facilitating information gathering and support. Nudges they receive are based on data, and they are served with personalized content, connections, and recommendations.”
I also sat down with Greg Klein, CEO and Founder of Nuvera, a consulting company specializing in creating innovative, patient-centric solutions. We circled back to this idea of Pharma as ‘convener’ in the ecosystem. Greg says, “I understand that designation and I agree with it. Pharma is the voice of authority when it comes to seeing someone through from diagnosis to symptom progression through to end points. If you’re seeing it all, the question I have is how are you not taking the time to put resources into all of these areas? The real challenge arises from the fact that they’re just not being compensated for it holistically.”
“This barrier needs to be removed,” he adds, “as Pharma is the only true architect of that care.”
When asked how Pharma can take a more holistic approach and the tools they have at their disposal to do it, he answered that “AI could provide support and act as a buddy along the way. AI can help patients navigate their treatment journeys and take a lot off of their plate. For the provider, knowing exactly where the patient is in their journey is where the real opportunity lies.”
Come meet me where I am.
My heart goes back to my conversation with Leah, and the millions of patients we’re all trying to help in their respective journeys. Having worked in technology for the better part of 30 years, I know that patient centricity starts with design, not technology. One comment Leah made sticks with me in particular. “Come meet me where I am.” In other words, see the journey through my eyes, what’s important to me, the quality of life I want to try to maintain, my preferences, my fears, and my hopes. AI has a tremendous potential to lighten the patient burden and help do jobs that improve the life and outcomes of our patients. It also has a critical role to play in empowering stakeholders and delivering data insights, pathways, and efficiencies that fast track our collective ability to transform and personalize healthcare.
We have been working in AI for the past five years at RxPx, embedding it as a companion or ‘buddy’ to the patient journey and provider support. But at the start of each design sprint, we ask not what technology can do, but rather what value we want to deliver to the patient and how to use AI to meet them where they are - and help them on the next step of the journey.
Contact Lynda at her LinkedIn Profile