Patients deserve to have their voices heard by the healthcare industry. Their input can not only improve the quality of their own care, but also that of many others with similar needs. It also sheds light on under-recognized sources of demand in the industry and opens up new opportunities for professionals who have the skills to fill that demand with new solutions.
To this end, our research team at The Brooks Group publishes an annual report on patient advocacy in the healthcare industry. Our pharmaceutical market research publication (The Advocate: Supporting the Patient Voice) has all of the information you need to assess the state of patient advocacy in the healthcare market and determine how to better align your company's offerings with patients' stated needs.
What Is The Advocate?
The Advocate: Supporting the Patient Voice is an annual market research report published by The Brooks Group that first debuted in 2018. It was preceded by our publication STAR: Successfully Targeting Advocacy Relations, which ran from 2010 to 2017.
The Advocate comprises information from 103 healthcare companies and 37 professional organizations spanning over 18 therapeutic areas in total. It includes both quantitative and qualitative data to create a more holistic and compelling picture of patient needs.
To complete our data set, we also conduct 45-minute follow-up interviews with a selection of the top organizations in the healthcare industry. These interviews give these organizations a chance to comment on their patient advocacy efforts in more detail and outline the areas they plan to work on in the near future.
Our Goals for The Advocate
In each edition of The Advocate, we strive to:
- Help the pharmaceutical community better understand patients' needs
- Provide an overview of how each organization is viewed by the patients it serves, facilitating improvement both internally and within the industry as a whole
- Create a set of consistently measured annual benchmarks that can be used to chart progress toward major patient-centered goals
Why It Matters
Patient advocacy is more than a professional courtesy – it is a fundamental duty within the healthcare industry.
The goal of all healthcare is to improve patients' health and quality of life. Providing treatments for disease only accomplishes part of that goal. Patients must have a platform to express their needs and priorities. Patient advocacy gives this vulnerable population a voice and makes it more likely that they will receive treatments that suit their budget, lifestyle, and overall health requirements. Advocacy work may even prompt companies to develop therapies for some conditions that are currently overlooked.
Since patient advocacy information is essentially an expression of demand, it also has significant repercussions for the sales side of healthcare. Major payers often shift their buying habits in response to patient feedback. Top healthcare consulting firms emphasize the importance of this relationship when advising clients on how to navigate changing markets.
Account managers who do not take the time to keep up with the latest patient advocacy reports may suddenly discover that their pitches are no longer resonating with their clients. In contrast, keeping up with this information on a yearly basis allows healthcare sales professionals to make timely propositions that address concrete, documented patient goals.
Bridging the Gap Between Patients and Industry
Investing in patient advocacy research could significantly improve your company's ability to close sales and make meaningful investments with appreciable ROI. The Brooks Group makes it easy to upgrade your workforce's skills with account management training courses, healthcare executive training, market research, and more. Contact us today to learn more about how your organization can receive access to The Advocate or to sign up for our any of our industry-leading healthcare sales training courses.
This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/05/power-of-patient-advocacy-in-pharmaceutical-development-the-advocate/
