Amplifying design thinking is underway as patients demand a greater role in clinical research. They want to feel  involved in  planning the study and disseminating the  results, and  want the studies themselves to be easier to manage. 

The demand for patient-friendly research is increasing every year. Pharmaceutical industry executives have tried to be responsive, but patients are not impressed with the results. Evaluation of patient participation in product research. 60 percent gave the same rating to industry efforts to involve patients in product development. 

In other words, the pharmaceutical industry is not doing enough to make patients’ voices heard. 

Part of the problem is that the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t see the patient as a customer. The industry is instead focused on the doctors who prescribe their drugs, the players who recover their drugs, and the pharmacies who dispense them.Ironically, the people who actually use their drugs are falling off the radar. 

By leveraging the fundamental tools of design thinking — empathizing with end users,  brainstorming solutions, and soliciting feedback on iterations — the pharmaceutical industry can resolve its patient-centric crisis and better serve its end users. 

Pharmaceutical companies using this approach are already seeing results. In a PharmaVoice article, Cynthia Verst, President of Design and Delivery Innovation at IQVI, explains how her company is taking a “human-centric design approach to patient recruitment and retention” by leveraging a patient portal where patients can learn about and share studies Feedback and interact with the alumni community. 

Features built into the portal address the many complaints patients have  about the clinical research experience while providing a transparent platform. Features include patient access to study updates, creating appointment notifications, and other basic communications that make patients feel valued. becomes the best way for amplifying design thinking. Patients and their caregivers get a more positive testing experience and access to information before, during and after a test that validates its critical value and importance in the research process. 

It may sound simple, but in an industry typically concerned with  privacy and with an attitude that the doctor knows how best, it can be difficult to recalibrate patient perspective and appreciation. The amplifying design thinking stance is a crucial step in the right direction.

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