5 tips to improve your patient support programs

The pharmaceutical industry is, like other industries, quickly digitalizing. New technologies allow businesses to provide more personalized and tangible services. Discover our five tips to help PSP’s become more powerful and efficient.

PSP stands for ‘Patient Support Program’.
It provides functional and emotional patient support when starting up a new drug. The participation improves therapy adherence with at least 30% and lowers annual healthcare costs. This benefits our healthcare system, the pharmaceutical company and last but not least the healthcare personnel (HCP). Indeed, they are reassured of a very close patient follow-up by a nurse and aware of the condition of their patient at all times.

Depending on the pharmaceutical company’s needs, it is possible to design, customize and adapt Patient Support Programs.

During a PSP, the vendor (who is responsible for the management of the PSP since direct contact between pharma company and patient is not allowed) receives and gathers information related to the use of a medication. We can track e.g. whether the medication is taken and the general adherence of the patient.

Gathering that data requires a mandatory document called an Informed Consent Form (ICF). The ICF informs patients about the PSP and the processing of their personal data. The patients sign the ICF before they are enrolled in the PSP to confirm that they agree to participate and are aware about all information mentioned in the document
(Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31081461/).

Now that we understand why PSP’s are fundamental to the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, we can have a look at what you can do to make your PSP’s more efficient and impactful.

The role of the HCP in the program is key. Indeed, the doctor is one of the main pillars in the success of the program:

• Doctors recommend patients to take part in a program, which could benefit the patient by increasing therapy adherence which can have a positive effect on their quality of life.
• During the PSP, doctors have access to the patient’s data through a specific portal.
• Doctors are in direct contact with the nurse and informed of all contacts between nurse and patient whether it is a phone call, home visit or notification of an adverse event.

If the patient experience is the heart of the program, the HCP experience remains very important for a successful PSP. By providing an easy and seamless experience for doctors, they will undoubtedly be more motivated to login to the platform and support the PSP as good as possible.

It is key for pharmaceutical companies to find ways to motivate HCPs as much as possible.

At Novellas, we consider that the HCP plays a pivotal role in the success of the program. Therefore, our nurses put in a lot of effort to inform the doctor and perform a follow-up on the patient’s situation. This also allows HCPs to delegate certain tasks to nurses and focus on analysing reports and make the appropriate choices for the patient accordingly.

It should be clear that the nurses are really a pivotal role for pharma, the physician and the patient. They help to create a secure and trustful environment.

To build trust in the relationship with the patient, it is important that there is regular contact between the nurse and the patient. We always recommend starting with a face-to-face visit. This gives the patient the opportunity to meet the nurse in person and connect with the nurse on a personal level.

When patients trusts their nurse, they will give more insights in their daily lives, their illness and therapy adherence. It is important to keep the HCP up-to-date on this gathered information at all time.

A Patient Support Program can take many forms. You might have noticed some PSPs taking the form of a full digital service, where data is captured and automated reminders help patients take their medication. These highly complex systems may sound powerful and easy-to-use, but in reality they lack patient centricity. The result? A drop of patient engagement and therapy adherence.

We are convinced that a hybrid solution combining digital and physical PSPs is the way to go.
At Novellas, we aim to co-create the best possible fit for patients with our partners through a good mix of physical touchpoints, via nurses and experts (psychologists, movement coaches, dieticians…), and the implementation of digital touchpoints.

The digital touchpoints do not only consist of reminders, but include education as well. We believe that a well-informed patient easily becomes an adherent one. Through various touchpoints (physical, digital, HCPs appointments), we can educate the patient about the illness, the medication and the best therapy behaviour to adopt.

We live in a data-centred world. Data gathered through a PSP, is a goldmine for the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. A PSP and its touchpoints generate valuable information, which can be used to determine how successful a PSP is, as well as to assess the success of a patient service*.

At Novellas, we determine the level of data gathering together with each partner. Being experienced professionals from the pharmaceutical world, we warmly advise you to mix data with the reality on the field.

*Data privacy is of course taken into account, cf. data processing terms (you can consult this information on our website). On top of that, patients ca give their permission by signing an Informed Consent before the start of the PSP. This consent includes information about how Novellas Healthcare collects, stores and generally processes data about him/her (in accordance with the terms stated in the privacy policy). Novellas Healthcare confirms that this data will be kept confidential and retained as described there. This transparency ensures that you can make an informed decision when transferring their personal data.

Gathering these quantitative and qualitative insights into a lively dashboard will allow organisations to take data-driven and practical decisions.