Placing the Patient at the Heart of Medical Affairs

Patient communities continue to mobilize and play an increasingly important role by influencing many elements of the drug development journey and subsequent patient access and support activities. This input ranges from natural history studies, recruitment in clinical trials, understanding burden, contributing to Health Technology Assessments and co-creating educational resources that enable shared decision making and adherence support. Given Medical Affairs stakeholders have similar reach across drug development and commercialization it is logical that this function plays a central role in an organization’s patient-first thinking and strategy. To achieve this, Medical Affairs stakeholders will need to develop thoughtful and impactful strategies that not only build the trust of patient communities but also their internal colleagues.  Here we discuss patient-centricity strategies and actions with Gavin Jones, Global Advisor Rare Disease, OPEN Health, Jenny Ghith, Senior Director, Omnichannel Strategy and Innovations Lead, Pfizer, and Brittany Wolf, Director, Patient Centricity Lead, Pfizer.