Delivering a Subcutaneous & IV Connected Care Ecosystem

Our client is a top pharmaceutical company specialising in treatments for chronic and rare diseases. The business is a global leader in pharmaceutical development, with offices in over 80 countries in EMEA, NAM and APAC.

Harte Hanks was tasked with creating a multichannel Patient Support Program (PSP) for one of the client’s leading intravenous therapies. In 2020, the company planned to launch a subcutaneous, self-administered alternative to this treatment, furthering the need to support patients and HCPs in this complex, life changing journey.

They required a solution that was scalable and sustainable across 20 countries, respecting local behaviours, cultural differences and regional regulations. The program’s focus was to provide support to patients when they need it, how they need it and where they need it. The main intention was to improve healthcare outcomes by supporting people living with the disease – especially those transitioning from IV to subcutaneous administration. This would include orchestrating channels and monitoring tools (apps, websites, reminders, trackers) to help patients and HCPs communicate during the course of treatment.

One of the most significant challenges the client faced would be establishing mutual buy-in from both external and internal stakeholders (HCPs, nurses, insurers, caregivers, brand teams). The program needed to reflect the client’s core values, remain flexible to branding and combine the perspectives of all relevant patient care influencers to ensure that the program would be launched in a timely manner and offered genuine value to patients and their care teams. Alongside this, the client needed to make it simple to facilitate the patient’s treatment journey by ensuring a seamless access to the different services provided in the PSP.

Harte Hanks designed and implemented a digital PSP ecosystem to support patients and HCPs across 20 different countries. The ecosystem was designed to ensure optimal health outcomes by engaging patients with a suite of tools that helped them to feel confident with their disease management, expertly-informed about their treatment journey, and fully connected to their healthcare team.

The program included a bespoke ‘Digital Companion’ app, providing quick, easy access to personalised treatment information and self-monitoring tools for people living with the disease. For the client, this integrated platform enabled them to monitor treatment adherence, measure health improvement over time and be adaptive to emerging behaviors and regional nuances over the course of treatment.

It was built on a modular approach, where local markets could launch the full ecosystem or individual elements, allowing them to adapt the program to their needs, budget and branding requirements. The end result was a sustainable model that could be launched, measured, optimized and maintained internationally for both modes of administration.

The ecosystem was co-created with the client’s key stakeholders to ensure unmet HCP, nurse and patient requirements were fully covered. This contributed to a well-rounded and contextually relevant program built around three modules to address patient, HCP and third-party nurse needs, enabling key care influencers to actively participate in and advocate for the program.