Getting Started

What's Your Objective?

As small as the step you want to take may be: clear objectives and communication will help overcome many potential hurdles with patients and colleagues alike.

Think about the following aspects:

  • Write down your objectives for sharing and review after some reflection and discussion with others.
  • What is it that you really want to achieve? Can you explain that to superiors, peers and patients alike so that the “why, what and how” becomes clear?
  • Where is your company today with regard to (effective) patient engagement? I.e., how much is patient collaboration part of the company strategy (management attention, leadership commitment, credibility inside-out, etc.)?
  • How does your specific idea/project/plan fit into this situation (relevance, added value to the company, established patient contacts or not, available skills and experience, resources, etc.)?
  • Who will support it and how solid is that support?
  • Red Face Test: If you do this project, can everybody in the company stand up for it in public?
  • Align with coworkers and actually test the elevator speech.

Check your readiness

Responsibility

Get someone skilled in charge: e.g. “Patient Affairs Manager”, yet the title doesn’t matter!

Build up a team: gather experts for patient collaboration from inside or outside your organization.

Create buy-in for patient engagement in your entire organisation.


Structure 

Have a plan: make patient engagement a strategic part of your business plan

Make it a work process: what, who, when and how?


Commitment

Involve the management level

Get budget and capacity for patient work allocated

Think a moment about the following questions:

What’s your objective?

Think a moment about the following questions:

  • What is it that you really want to achieve? Can you explain that to superiors, peers and patients alike so that the “why, what and how” becomes clear? 
  • Where is your company today with regard to (effective) patient engagement, i.e. how much is patient collaboration part of the company strategy (management attention, leadership commitment, credibility inside-out, etc.)?
  • How does your specific idea/project/plan fit with this situation (relevance, added value to the company, established patient contacts or not, available skills and experience, resources, etc.)?
  • Who will support it and how solid is that support?
  • Red Face Test: If you do this project, can everybody in the company stand up for it in public?


If you feel confident you can succeed and have sufficient support for your initiative move on to “follow the 3 CLC principles”.

Think a moment about the following questions:

What’s your objective?

Think a moment about the following questions:

  • What is it that you really want to achieve? Can you explain that to superiors, peers and patients alike so that the “why, what and how” becomes clear? 
  • Where is your company today with regard to (effective) patient engagement, i.e. how much is patient collaboration part of the company strategy (management attention, leadership commitment, credibility inside-out, etc.)?
  • How does your specific idea/project/plan fit with this situation (relevance, added value to the company, established patient contacts or not, available skills and experience, resources, etc.)?
  • Who will support it and how solid is that support?
  • Red Face Test: If you do this project, can everybody in the company stand up for it in public?

CONNECT
Managing the relationship

Mapping the players

Sustainable and reliable bidirectional

Credibility and honesty

Transparency, respect of independence

„Faces“ / personal contacts and empathy

Appropriate communication

LISTEN
Understanding
patients‘ issues

Understanding the disease

Social and financial implications on patients and their families

Insight into patient journey, pain-points, touch-points

Reimbursement

Therapeutic Options

CREATE
Involve and create

Research, early development and concepts

Clinical development

Market access

Therapy adherence

Generating further data

Benefit/risk communication

If you feel confident you can succeed and have sufficient support for your initiative move on to “follow the 3 CLC principles”.