PURE Engagement: Partnering to Shape Effective Patient Support with Critical Insights 

Patient support programs (PSPs) are a vital industry offering with billions of dollars spent each year to engage patients in their treatments to achieve better health outcomes. But is this money well spent?  Are you achieving your end goal of treatment adherence?  Addressing these questions with real world insights of patient, HCP and support staff (AHCP) behaviors and satisfaction with PSPs is critical to your success. Such insights can foster the flexibility and adaptability needed to succeed with patient support in our constantly changing industry. Just think what you might do if you knew how patients responded to their welcome call, and were able to identify patients at risk of non-adherence and align them with the right interventions? And that is just one small sample of insights to be gained. 

Going beyond the data to enhance experience

Getting a data dump on patient support programs or standardized QBR data is not the answer to creating effective and cost-efficient PSPs. But receiving the data along with insights and recommendations leveraged from industry experience and the overall market landscape, can help you better understand exactly how your PSP is perceived and used, and how you need to adjust to make improvements. PURE Engagement does just that.  

 PURE Engagement is a “living benchmark” on your specific PSP, along with read-outs on therapeutic area, patient, HCP/AHCP, and a year-end summary across all therapeutic areas, complemented by interviews and quarterly insight-rich newsletters. It provides the tools and industry partner you need to strategically align your organization and leadership team to evolve your patient support investments and capabilities to enhance experience.  

For example, instead of just reporting that 40% of patients want more education on lifestyle adjustments, PURE Engagement also explains the relevancy to you and how to best address the identified knowledge gaps to improve patient satisfaction. Certainly, when you understand how you compare to others in your therapeutic area relative to the general needs of HCP and patient, you are in a much better position to make the changes necessary to effectively engage with HCPs, AHCPs and patients to drive a more effective program. 

The benefits of program measurement

In order to best evaluate the effectiveness of your PSP, it’s essential to understand which programs are performing well and which are perceived as less effective. This is why benchmarking is key. Without a clear understanding of today’s HCP, AHCP and patient needs relative to programs offered, it’s nearly impossible to evolve your support program in the right direction. 

For instance, pharma companies often underestimate their effectiveness with HCPs and overestimate how well they’re meeting patient needs. We have found most patients respond positively but don’t indicate where you can do better. Conversely, because of the complexity in running a PSP and primarily hearing about the complaints, pharma companies often miss the fact that overall, comparatively speaking, they may still be doing well with HCPs and AHCPs. Objective performance measurement is difficult, but it can be done with the right methodology and experience to bring clarity. 

In order to properly address the complexity of PSPs, you need to work with a holistic assessment of the many factors impacting HCP, AHCP and patient engagement with them. There are several key indices – awareness, people and culture, ease of use, service offerings, quality, technology and customer experience – each representing a myriad of topics, that require measurement to drive a clear picture of where your program falls in engagement effectiveness. The data-driven insights from these responses will then highlight areas of improvement.  

“Knowing your program’s strengths is important and can offer a sense of validation. But true progress comes from understanding where you need to improve to drive continuous growth, adapt to evolving needs, and maintain a competitive edge.” – Jens Kulstad, Head of PURE Engagement 

Despite the resources you invest in your program each year, if you are not continually looking to improve, you will fall behind. It is only by understanding your pain points and the weaknesses in your program, that you will be able to determine where to focus your resources to achieve program effectiveness.  

A case in point is that of a mid-size pharmaceutical company who faced significant program enrollment challenges. PURE Engagement analyzed direct customer feedback to uncover the pain points in the enrollment process and leveraged insights from data on customer drivers for an optimal enrollment experience, to provide guidance on the solution. A portal was added as an additional enrollment channel to meet the needs of customers who prefer digital engagement. After its launch, the client experienced a notable rise in ease-of-use ratings and a marked improvement in technology and digital experience scores.  

Where are we heading?

Our industry is facing numerous challenges in the coming years. How we integrate and channel digital tools and AI to best support patients will play a critical part in our planning. The evolving policies, changing continually in real time, pose a significant hurdle to patient access in 2025 and moving forward.   

Recognizing that no program will ever be perfect, we must still acknowledge that the future of patient access lies in anticipation, not just reaction. The difference between reacting and leading is knowing where access challenges are headed and getting there first. Insights from PURE Engagement can drive this leadership. In light of the policy challenges, PURE Engagement is expanding our work to include payer perspectives, adding a critical third voice alongside patients and HCPs to address how to best shape patient support today and into the future.  

We understand that data-driven insights drive impact. We’ve seen firsthand how the right statistics can reshape how companies engage with patients and HCPs. As your strategic consulting partner, we keep you abreast of your PSP’s effectiveness with benchmarked data and insights, which when leveraged effectively, will serve to continually evolve your PSP to best meet patient needs, improve adherence and drive better outcomes. 

Contact PURE Engagement today to see how we can keep you moving forward with your patient support program: Contact us