Lauri Arnstein, Patient Partnership Liaison at Envision Pharma Group, reflects on the movement within pharma to involve patients at every stage of the medicines development lifecycle, and the many opportunities for patient involvement in medcomms activities.

Recorded 4 April 2018 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

There is a movement within pharma to involve patients in every stage of the medicines development lifecycle, from the design of clinical trials, to improve recruitment and retention of participants, to improving dissemination and communication of information post approval. Yet while patient-centricity is rapidly evolving, patients, paradoxically, are not waiting for us! They are creating scientific content themselves in a lot of cases, and pharma can find itself playing catch-up. However, barriers exist on both sides. One of the many challenges faced by patients is that published research is often inaccessibly situated behind a journal paywall. From an industry point of view, there is the fear that talking to patients may be seen as promoting to patients. Moreover, senior management buy-in takes time, and is complicated by the lack of clear metrics to measure the value of patient engagement. Nevertheless, there are now real opportunities for co-creating with patients, for example in the production of plain language summaries, which will ultimately improve patient-doctor relationships and the wider public health. To take full advantage of these opportunities, industry needs practical guidance to navigate the current challenges.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event_040418.html

Lauri’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/arnstein_040418.pdf

Lauri’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauri-arnstein-4a356b110/

More about Envision Pharma Group can be found at http://www.envisionpharmagroup.com

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]