DIA 2019 Global Annual Meeting

Many life science companies are creating new functions or are re-organizing existing patient advocacy roles/departments to support expanding expectations for patient involvement in the research, development, launch, and delivery of new medical products. These newly defined roles require an understanding of and active communication with internal and external stakeholders. They are often on the leading edge of cultural change within their organizations, to help spread both the concept of patient engagement and practice of patient-centricity beyond early adopters. In this session, individuals serving in these positions will share lessons learned, thoughts on factors that contribute to success, describe hard and soft skills needed to be effective, and discuss how they're tracking progress within their companies. We'll compare reporting structures, pros/cons of centralized versus diffused models, and forecast what's ahead from a human-resource planning standpoint as patient-focused drug development matures.