Inspire’s MS Community Overcomes Patient Isolation with Peer-to-Peer Support and Experience

Inspire’s MS Community Overcomes Patient Isolation with Peer-to-Peer Support and Experience By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Over 15,000 members of Inspire have interest in, searched for, or have posted about multiple sclerosis (MS). Members have written over 4000 posts and more than 2000 searches have been conducted on MS. Pharmaceutical marketers wonder if patients discuss medications with each other online. The answer is a definitive yes. Patients also discuss what they learned online about treatments with their health care provider. It is not unusual for members to reach out after just being diagnosed. “I was just [...]

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Jan 2020By |0 Comments

What Touchpoints Influence Drug Compliance for Chronic Illnesses?

What Touchpoints Influence Drug Compliance for Chronic Illnesses? By Kathleen Hoffman, PhD, MSPH Recent marketing research from Google shows that it takes 50-500 touchpoints to influence a purchase decision. While the study focused on common non-medical purchases (headphones, airline flights, beauty products, and candy), the authors point out an important shift in the concept of marketing touchpoints: Today, people are no longer following a linear path from awareness to consideration to purchase. They are narrowing and broadening their consideration set in unique and unpredictable moments. In fact, the authors of a study titled “Chronic Illness Medication [...]

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Jan 2020By |0 Comments

Using Quantitative and Qualitative Research to Enhance Patient Focused Drug Development

Using Quantitative and Qualitative Research to Enhance Patient Focused Drug Development By Hannah Eccard FDA’s focus of incorporating the patient voice into the drug development process requires the life science industry to engage in new research strategies. Based on what we're seeing so far from the FDA, it appears that the agency is closely considering the value of mixed methods: qualitative research along with quantitative research. Dr. Theresa Mullin, Associate Director for Strategic Initiatives at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at FDA, said at the first guidance meeting for Patient Focused Drug Development (PFDD) [...]

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Jan 2019By |0 Comments

Qualitative analysis informs all of Inspire’s research offerings: An Inspire Engage case study

Qualitative analysis informs all of Inspire’s research offerings: An Inspire Engage case study By Monica St. Claire "Where is the understanding we have lost in knowledge?” ~T. S. Eliot 1 Inspire’s research team approaches all its work by first becoming immersed in patients’ and caregivers’ “in-the-moment” sense-making. The tool they use, qualitative research, is the listening side of scientific exploration. In its many formats - social listening, thematic analysis, linguistic analysis - qualitative research makes sense of phenomena using the meanings that people bring to them, understanding experiences through their view of the world. 2 An [...]

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Jul 2018By |0 Comments

Can the Life Science Industry Be Part of Shared Medical Decision-Making?

Can the Life Science Industry Be Part of Shared Medical Decision-Making? By Richard Tsai In the past, if there was something wrong, most patients went to the doctor and did what their doctors told them to do. Now, the plethora of available online health information has transformed the dynamic between patients and their doctors.  According to Pew Research Center’s 2013 data, 59% of Americans search for health information online. In 2015 Google found that one in twenty online searches were health-related.1 Armed with information about diagnoses and treatments, patients can change the medical decision-making process. Inspire’s 3rd [...]

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Jun 2018By |0 Comments

Diversity Initiatives? Are They Worth It?

Diversity Initiatives? Are They Worth It? When I asked audience members at a panel discussion during the inaugural Clinical Leader Forum, held in Philadelphia on May 10-11, 2017, three questions about diversity in clinical trials, I got some surprising answers. The questions were: How many attendees come from organizations that value diversity? How many come from organizations that prioritize diversity? How many attendees acknowledge their own personal biases that may impact their ability to effectively address diversification? Although many in the audience came from organizations that value diversity, there were fewer that came from organizations that are [...]

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Oct 2017By |0 Comments