The Patient Insights and Solutions (PInS) team uses a range of tools to derive patient data that provides a deep knowledge of the real-world patient experience within a given disease area.
They connect directly with patients, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners to understand the social and emotional factors impacting care, identify barriers to favorable outcomes, and propose solutions to overcome them.
The team’s work ensures initiatives related to products being tested in humans or post-approval medicines are tailored to meet patient needs.
Who we work with
PInS works directly with patients, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners to gain a deep understanding of the medical, social, interpersonal and emotional factors that impact care.
The resulting knowledge enables the team to identify barriers to optimal patient health outcomes, and recommend potential solutions to Astellas colleagues from across business functions.
How we work
PInS team members have diverse backgrounds, including expertise in qualitative and quantitative research, customer experience, and health outcomes. Each project is different, tailored to meet the level and type of support required by the internal project team. Examples include:
- Secondary research to help understanding of indications being pursued
- Using novel technology, including virtual reality tools, to simulate the patient experience in a disease area
- Patient insights to inform and improve trial recruitment
- Focus groups to inform study protocols
- Surveys, interviews, and workshops to identify barriers to trial engagement and retention
In collaboration with other Astellas teams, PInS can help colleagues to:
- understand the challenges facing specific disease subpopulations
- understand issues caregivers in specific disease areas may experience
- design solutions that address barriers to optimal health outcomes
- inform product lifecycle decisions
How our work makes a difference: Case study
The challenge: Despite bladder cancer claiming 212,000 lives every year1, awareness of the condition remains low, and patients and caregivers face significant stigma and mental health challenges.
The project: To find out more about bladder cancer, Astellas colleagues partnered with PInS to survey and interview patients and caregivers affected by the condition.
The results were translated into an evidence-based patient insights report, which formed the basis of a disease education and awareness campaign, highlighting the disease’s impact on people’s lives.
The study confirmed that patients and caregivers in the bladder cancer community face mental health challenges, which were often associated with self-stigma. Caregivers also struggle with loneliness, the study found.
The outcome: The study empowered the Astellas project team to demonstrate the impact of bladder cancer on patients and caregivers. They have shared findings with patient groups and societies, and, as a result of the learnings, are developing a Bladder Cancer Carer Handbook to help address unmet needs in the caregiver community.
Reference
- Bilim V, Kuroki H, Shirono Y, Murata M, Hiruma K, Tomita Y. Advanced Bladder Cancer: Changing the Treatment Landscape. J Pers Med 2022;12(10):1745.