For a global pharma company, Healthskouts conducted in-depth research to better understand and find opportunities for solving the diagnostic delay pertaining to an immune mediated inflammatory disease (IMID).
A significant proportion of patients with this condition have to wait several years, with dibilitating symptoms, before they are accurately diagnosed and effectively treated.
Our client asked us to research the root causes of the diagnostic delay across the patient journey and clinical workflows, and subquently explore technologies, partnerships and interventions that could accelerate the diagnosis rate by a significant margin.
In this project we conducted a comprehensive scan of the scientific literature and other online sources, complimented by several key informant interviews with specialist physicians, patient associations, labs, tech companies and payers. We searched for new technologies, biomarkers, lab tests, analytical techniques, workflows & business models, that could be leveraged to improve screening and accelerate diagnosis. In particular, we looked for tactics that could:
- Increase awareness & motivation to screen among patients, clinicians and other relevant stakeholders (e.g. pharmacies, health plans)
- Improve the accessibility and patient experience of screenings at multiple points in the patient journey
- Improve the accuracy and reliability of screenings
- Better support both patients and clinicians across the entire diagnostic journey, to ensure follow through
Importantly, we were especially interested in opportunities for structural/sustainable change. In other words, innovations that have strong potential business cases and hence could be supported by the relevant stakeholders in the field for the long term.
Finally, we also supported the client in building a multi-stakeholder consortium to accelerate diagnosis of this particular disease.
