Following on from her previous article expounding the value of patient research and some of the inherent issues, Jennifer Cassels reviews some of the methodologies and techniques which can be utilised to maximise the value of patient research.
Jennifer Squire 
19 Aug, 2008
Qual Corner: Let patients have their say - research techniques to maximise outputs from patient research
When we think about pharmaceutical market research, our initial thoughts focus on research with healthcare professionals. Whilst Healthcare Professionals can be invaluable in understanding the rationale behind brand performance or why a market has developed the way it has, they do not paint the whole picture.
In recent years pharma has begun to realise the value of understanding the
world of the actual end user of their product, the patient. Understanding patients’ behaviour,
beliefs, experiences and needs can provide companies with more in depth and
different insights into how to develop and focus their brand and marketing
strategies in order to maximise return.
So understanding patients’ behaviours, beliefs etc is highly valuable, however we must remember that patient research, like market research in general is not without challenges. Two key issues faced in patient research are:
- How do we gain true representation of ‘real’ behaviour, experiences and needs?
- How do we understand the ‘whole’ patient not just their condition?
Outlined are 3 different research techniques which can be utilised to not only understand the patients’ universe but help to overcome or minimise the issues highlighted:
- Timeline
- Emotional Cascade
- Video Diaries
Why do we, as humans behave in the way we do and why does one person behave in a different way to another person? This is a very complex question. Human behaviour is multifaceted and is influenced on many different levels. We are influenced by the environment around us, our social interactions, our personal experiences, our personal belief systems and our emotional state. We are also the only creatures on earth (as far as we know) that can remember the past as discrete events and connect them with the present and project them into the future thus consciously decide what to do. Thus not only do we live in the present, but also the past and the future.
To understand why a patient behaves in the way they do with regards to their condition, we must try to gain insight into not only events which are currently influencing their behaviour, but also past events which could be influencing the present behaviours. One technique which can be utilised here is the timeline.
Timelining is an approach which can take on many different guises. In this instance we take the patient through their personal journey from point of diagnosis to present day, mapping out all the key life events and experiences which have occurred over this timeframe and understand how these events shaped their behaviour towards their condition.
Using a very ‘open’ style of questioning we can build a clear ‘map’ of how their real life experiences have shaped their current behaviours: Probing how the event unfolded, how it made them feel, what impact it had in general and to their condition specifically.
Understanding patients’ rational and emotional needs is key in determining to what extent a product can meet such needs. People rarely have ‘top of mind’ access to a comprehensive and coherent account of their ‘needs’ in any particular instance. Although research in neuroscience has demonstrated that ‘the emotional’ is dominant in human decision making, people often have difficulties talking spontaneously about more ‘emotional’ needs. A technique called emotional cascade can be effectively utilised here to tap into emotional needs.
Emotional cascade involves utilising emotional words to understand a person’s current feelings with relation to their condition and then taking this further to determine their desired or ‘ideal’ feelings which relate directly to emotional needs. Initially the patients is shown an extensive list of different emotional states, both positive and negative and asked to choose between 7 and 10 words that reflect how they currently feel about their conditions (and where these feelings stem from). They are then shown a list of only positive emotions and asked again to choose 7 to 10 words that reflect how they would ideally like to feel about their condition. By delving into each ideal ‘need’ in detail we can determine what having this would provide them with and what impact it would have on their life and condition. We can then ladder this further to determine how, at a more functional level such needs could be met.
Patient video diaries are another valuable market research tool providing
insight into the patient’s world and the impact their condition can have
on their everyday life, their quality of life and physical and psychological
well being.
Patients are provided with a video camera and asked to talk for 5 to 10 minutes each day about their condition, how they are feeling, what impact their condition has had on their day, what it has prevented them from doing, its impact on others etc. Allowing the patients to talk openly, reflecting their experiences over the course of a week or a couple of weeks, really gets into the hearts and minds of the patients and witnesses their real life accounts of everyday life living with their condition.
The 3 techniques described in this article are by no way an exhaustive list
of techniques which can be used to maximise patient research outputs, however
they are all very useful tools when utilised appropriately and can provide
extremely valuable insights into the world of the patient.
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