Show simple item record

dc.contributor.authorDe Boeck, Isabel
dc.contributor.authorGoedmakers, Joyce
dc.contributor.authorSnels, Luka
dc.date.accessioned2021-04-27T19:02:02Z
dc.date.available2021-04-27T19:02:02Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12127/6851
dc.description.abstractBy focusing on patient-centricity and engagement, pharmaceutical company MSD hopes to revamp their image of a 'mere provider of medication' and eventually differentiate itself from the competitors by becoming an integrated part of the care for patients. To obtain this goal, we believe that the key is to focus on digital health technology, as it allows MSD to leverage their deep disease expertise and marketing capabilities. This paper gives a recommendation to MSD about a possible digital support for Belgian lung cancer patients, regardless of their treatment. We choose to focus on lung cancer since we believe these patients have very specific needs and since MSD's new successful drug Keytruda® is mainly used to treat stage four lung cancers. Our preliminary research about lung cancer shows that the seriousness of the disease and the stigma around it, creates many (unmet) needs for the patients. Besides the physical needs like pain management and oxygen support, they mainly have a need for informational, psychological, social and administrative support, clear communication and help in dealing with their new lifestyle after the cancer diagnosis. A qualitative open-ended interview composed around these six needs gave us more insight in the complete patient experience: how the cancer journey goes, the important and unmet needs in every phase of the journey and the type of digital support that is desired by patients. In our qualitative research, we interviewed 19 people, of which three lung cancer patients, eight loved ones of patients who passed away, five oncology nurses, two lung doctors and one oncologic clinical trial researcher. Based on the interviews, three patient personas are detected. The 'involved' patient, who wants to be informed about his disease and management, who wants to fight the disease until the very end and who is visibly scared and worried. Around 40% of patients belong to the 'involved' persona and women belong more often to this group than men. Their most prevalent need is information. Moreover, these patients would certainly like to have digital support in their cancer journey. Then there is the 'realistic' patient, who is defined as practical and sober and his main need is not being a burden to his loved ones. This persona prefers face-to-face interaction and support, and generally does not look for digital support with regards to his disease. This persona is the most common: around 45% of patients behave like this. Finally, there is the 'ignorant' patient who ignores the disease as much as possible until the end of his lung cancer, when the shock finally arrives. Many older people can be classified as the 'ignorant' patient as well, as they often do not understand what is going on. For these patients, the main needs are experienced by the loved ones, who must arrange a lot of practicalities around the disease and sometimes desire psychological support in this difficult time. In the report, a detailed overview of patient needs and the desired digital solutions per persona can be found. We recommend MSD to perform a quantitative follow-up research to get an even better understanding of the lung cancer patient experience and the different personas. In our dataset, there are only 11 patients, of which all but one have stage four disease. This could potentially bias the results as it could be that the severity of the disease determines the 'type' of patient and hence the desired solution. We do not have enough variety in our data to test for this. Therefore, we composed several hypotheses based on the findings of our qualitative study and literature review. These hypotheses can then be (dis)confirmed during a deductive research of many patients, after submitting a research protocol and getting the approval by the ethical committee of hospitals. We designed a solution scenario for each of the personas, starting with a minimal viable product in the short term to a more complex product and technology in the longer term. For the 'involved' patient, we propose an information website, providing targeted information based on the tumor characteristics of the patients and the phase in his cancer journey. The information is mostly about the lung cancer diagnosis, treatment, side effects and how to deal with them, and the clinical trials. A more enhanced website should avoid the 'one trick pony' danger, by logging the patients in on the site to provide even more personalized information and to evolve the complexity of medical terminology as the patient's knowledge about lung cancer increases. In the long term, a Chatbot can be added on the website, which is able to answer the patients' questions 24/7 and can refer the patients to the emergency department in case the questions demonstrate a serious health danger. For the 'realistic' patient, we suggest a basic information webpage on an iPad, provided during the administering of the immuno-therapy or chemotherapy. These patients do not look for digital support, so it is a good idea to target them during their treatment at the hospital. The webpage should provide administrative information and information about palliative treatment possibilities, as these patients do not want to be a burden to the loved ones when they become too ill and dependent. Furthermore, they have real struggles with physically deteriorating and therefore, information about dealing with this changing lifestyle can also be provided. In a later phase, this information can be shown in animation videos, which can help to distract and relax the patients during the treatment. Afterwards, in the long term, these videos can be shown on virtual reality goggles, together with other (relaxation) games to distract patients from side effects and their serious health situation during the treatment. Finally, for the 'ignorant' patients, we provide a similar digital tool as for the 'involved' patients, starting with a basic website and developing this into an enhanced website with a Chatbot. However, the solution here is targeted towards the loved ones of the patients since the patient itself is mostly ignoring or not understanding the disease and will most likely not use digital support tools. The information in this scenario is more practically oriented and less focused on medical information about the lung cancer itself. In case MSD is not interested in follow-up research to get a better understanding of the patient experience, we also propose a more general solution scenario that is useful for and desired by all the personas in the interviews. This solution consists of a Chatbot on Facebook Messenger since communication is a very important need for all the interviewed patients. This Chatbot should eventually be able to give reminders about hospital appointments because this is a digital feature that every interviewed persona strongly desires. If MSD really wants a place in the healthcare ecosystem of the patient, the key is to focus on patient experience and not, for example, on immediate revenue increases. Therefore, our advice for MSD is to focus their future digital strategy on the 'involved' patients, since these solutions seem to have the biggest impact on the patient experience. However, it must be emphasized that our findings are limited and only preliminary, and quantitative follow-up research by MSD is necessary. The following elements should be examined in the quantitative study. First, the identified patient experience (needs and journey) should be tested. To check for the impact analysis, correctness of identified patient personas, prevalence of identified patient personas, and likeliness of each persona to use a digital tool, should be tested. Third, MSD should partner up with experts and do more concrete research about the feasibility of our proposed solutions. Finally, they should be able to compare the impact on the patient experience of every solution versus its feasibility to decide for which solution they should go.
dc.language.isoen
dc.titleDigital engagement strategy of the immuno-oncology franchise: A qualitative study of lung cancer patients
dc.source.numberofpages139
vlerick.knowledgedomainStrategy
vlerick.supervisorErden, Zeynep
dc.identifier.vperid237517
vlerick.companynameMSD Belgium
vlerick.companysupervisorHemelsoet, Dirk
vlerick.programmeMGM Leuven - MIE
vlerick.typebusresprojectIn-Company Project


This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record