(Part 4) Reaching Patients Along The Specialty Medication Journey: Worried Patients
***ConnectiveRx recently conducted a qualitative study where we interviewed 23 specialty patients about their medication journey. About half were still actively taking a specialty medication, and half were not.
The purpose of this research was to help ConnectiveRx better understand the specialty patient experience, including the emotional journey from first symptoms to diagnosis and treatment, as well as their personal reactions to their new reality and how they chose to manage their care. This intricate level of understanding helps ConnectiveRx provide more personalized services for pharmaceutical brands to support patient adherence.
Four common personality types emerged from this research. What follows is the last of a four-part series highlighting each of these traits. Brands can utilize these profiles to better understand the differences in patient personalities in order to provide the best communication methods, education and resources that can successfully speak to each personality, with the ultimate goal of helping the patient get on and stay on therapy in their own unique ways.***
Focused on the future
When a patient is actively suffering from their condition or are young and still planning their family and career paths, a chronic diagnosis can lead to ongoing anxiety about their futures. Labeled as worried patients, this is a group who will regularly look for answers to try to be prepared in case treatments stop working.
They often recognize that their condition could have an impact on any and all future plans. Their ability to have children is often a topic of concern, as are travel plans and the general impact on their families. Since some worried patients may have rare conditions, their worries can be compounded due to lack of information and resources.
Searching for answers
Since one of the greatest concerns for worried patients is around what to expect in the future, they can become frustrated when they have few resources. Even if that resource comes from another patient this can bring comfort. As one spondyloarthropathy patient puts it: “I talked to [another patient] a little bit about what her process was like with her rheumatologist, to see if I was sort of similar.” They are often active in seeking information on their own, and a lack of reliable resources can add to their anxiety.
Information about their condition, however, is not their only concern. Since they want to prepare for any possible setback, they may worry about future insurance coverage for their medication, what to do if their patient assistance program runs out, and what steps to take if their treatment stops being effective.
Easing patient concerns
A worried patient is likely to regularly find something to focus their energies on since they are concerned with how their condition could impact a variety of factors in their lives. Arguably, these are the types of patients that need the most resources available to them.
ConnectiveRx supports brands looking to provide a variety or resources to their worried patients. Brands should consider implementing:
- BrandHub – Our signature solution that streamlines benefit verification and prior authorization to speed access to therapy, plus coverage reverification that can prevent sudden lapses in treatment
- Careform Pharmacy powered by ConnectiveRx – our non-commercial pharmacy designed to speed the prescription process and ease administrator burdens so providers have more time to spend with their patients
- mobileCare ManagerTM – Our mobile platform that contains access to trusted resources around conditions and treatment, plus self-dosing how to guides and chat features linked to providers, case managers, and other patients…all from the patient’s smartphone
Check out more detailed information on our hub services, and reach out to Inquiries@ConnectiveRx.com for more information.
Read the previous parts: