Pharmafile Logo

The role of medical affairs in positive and appropriate engagement with patient advocacy groups

January 30, 2020 |  

Written by Gavin Jones, Dr Alexandra Safronova & Professor Peter Rutherford, OPEN Health

Following a series of workshops at a recent Medical Affairs Professionals Society (MAPS) Congress in Amsterdam, workshop leaders Gavin Jones, Dr Alexandra Safronova and Professor Peter Rutherford share their lessons learnt on how medical affairs departments within pharmaceutical companies can help create better partnerships with patient advocacy groups

Pink divider

Patient advocacy groups continue to mobilise and play an increasingly important role in delivering advice and support helping to get treatments to those most in need by Influencing many elements of drug development and patient access processes. This is very much the case in rare disease where groups give critical support to patients and those close to them through influential programmes delivered  with passion and dogged persistence.

Biopharma recognises the importance of positive engagement and partnership with patient groups. Gaining a far greater understanding of the patient journey helps to translate innovations into actual benefits for patients and caregivers in improved clinical outcomes and patient experience.

A question remains around how, and which part of a biopharma organisation should be involved in building patient group relationships. Many organisations invest in patient advocacy leads to support engagement, but they are often brought in to support dialogue as new treatment is becoming available.  As   patient  groups  are  rightly  getting involved in activities much earlier in the drug development process who should lead engagement at this stage and support over the longer term?

This was a question that was posed at workshops during the recent Medical Affairs Professionals (MAPS) meeting in Europe. MAPS is an organisation that supports the sharing of best practice amongst leaders in this key function of pharmaceutical companies. So, who are medical affairs and what is their role?

Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/37IYg5

Pink divider

Get in touch

For more information on rare disease contact:

Gavin Jones, Director of Rare Disease, OPEN Health

Gavinjones@openhealthgroup.com

This content was provided by OPEN Health

Company Details

 Latest Content from  OPEN Health 

Spotlight interview: 15 minutes on digital in medical communications

Gemma Allen, Head of Digital Communications, OPEN Health takes 15 minutes to answer some key questions on digital in medical communications

Generating data on long-term outcomes with gene and other advanced therapies

Gene therapy and advanced cell-based therapies offer patients hope and the potential to make them ‘chronically well’.

Are you using Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs) in your oncology trials? If not, why not?

A recent blog, published by Sarah Tressel Gary and Rinah Yamamoto called “Patient-Reported Outcome Data in Oncology Trials - Part 2: Clinical Benefit and Patient Preference”, has sparked our interest....

Spotlight interview: 15 minutes on insights and market research in pharma

Neil Rees, Head of Research, OPEN Health Patient & Brand Communication takes 15 minutes to answer some key questions on insights and market research in pharma

OPEN Health reflections on the World Orphan Drug Congress in Barcelona

Having just returned from a very busy but hugely enjoyable few days at congress, I wanted to share our views on the event and key themes that our healthcare communications...

Patient journey mapping: exploring the clinical and the emotional journey

By Chris Hodgson, Neil Rees, Sumira Riaz and Karen Petticrew While we can all agree that the value of developing a patient journey map cannot be underestimated when exploring the...

OPEN Health announces the integration of Pharmerit International into the group

OPEN Health has today announced the integration of Pharmerit International, a global leader in health economics and outcomes research (HEOR), into its group of companies.

OPEN Health mobilised to support outcomes with gene and other advanced therapies

Harnessing the power of collaborations to bring real insights and improve outcomes

Spotlight interview: 15 minutes on PR in pharma

Vicky Bramham, Managing Director, OPEN Health takes 15 minutes to answer some key questions on PR discipline.

OPEN Health PBC recognised as No. 1 independent creative agency

We’re No.1! PMLive have named OPEN Health Patient & Brand Communications as the no.1 independent creative healthcare agency. The aim of the PMLive Top 10 lists is to highlight those...