In the beginning, the focus has been on co-creating the right tools and methodologies to make patient engagement happen, as part of an intensive and collaborative process. The result - the Global Patient Engagement Management Suite is now a widely accepted and utilized go-to source when starting and managing patient engagement initiatives. And it’s still growing - in 2022 we started exploring opportunities for greater PE in post-launch and early-discovery activities. Extensive work on remuneration standards for interactions between the patient community and the pharmaceutical industry was a focus, with a FAIR market value calculator expected in 2023.
Slowly, over the years, patient engagement moved from a “nice to have” to a natural thought in all stakeholders’ minds, with, notably, regulators and HTAs starting to call for it as well in the last couple of years. This evolution started in drug development but naturally evolved towards other areas of the health ecosystem - medical technology, digital health, and health delivery. And so did PFMD.
But with this success, unexpected challenges were waiting around the corner.
As we continued to engage through key initiatives like the Patient Experience Data stream, or through ample co-creation exercises during the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF), a couple of things became clear.
Firstly, a shifting need was observed. From patients serving various groups, answering multiple, sometimes conflicting requests from industry, regulators, etc, to a truly patient-centric system where patients are served by all the other stakeholders, and they don’t have to suffer from duplication of work. PEOF is a safe haven for dialogue and co-creation to happen towards this goal - 4,000+ people participated last year, including in the first in-person gathering since 2019.
Secondly, the need for PE to benefit from its own intelligence became clear. Not only by gathering best practices but also by measuring the value they bring (or not!), thus monitoring to learn and impact analysis became a key PFMD priority. A first step was the launch of the Metrics Selector, with more PE intelligence guidance coming in 2023.
34 members and many more contributors have been hasrd at work in 2022 engineering change in the patient engagement ecosystem across many other areas. In medtech, a diverse group worked on an adapted PE training to support capacity building in the industry and beyond, while an extensive study about patient engagement needs in digital health has been undertaken. A focus on improving access to clinical trials through structured data and better digitalization was also a focus for the membership.
In the end, it’s clear that systemic change is not easy. Qualitative patient engagement becoming a central pillar in our health system can happen only through a strong, diverse community of ambassadors and practicians. Everyone has a role to play and an impact to bring. Learning from each other, motivating each other when things get tough, and pulling together complementary expertise and input, is the only way forward. And PFMD is committed to facilitating that both online (through Synapse, our digital community, virtual events, meetings and so much more) and offline in every interaction, conference, coffee, and chat.
Patient engagement (PE) and Patient Experience Data (PED) are emerging as a critical aspect in research and healthcare to deliver evidence-based patient unmet needs, health outcomes and impact.
Throughout 2022, the PFMD Membership focused on ensuring that the many PED developments reflect and include PE best practices and deliver on evidence-based decision-making with, and for, patients.
Development of the Global PE & PED Navigator
This tool aims to provide clarity on the what, how, when, why, and who of PED and the when and how of PE.
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Regulators and HTA representatives continuous active participation in the PE & PED working groups, as well as in the various virtual & in-person PEOF events.
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Updated paper exploring the trends and increasing consideration of PE and PED by regulatory and Health Technology Assessment agencies
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A dynamic tool, building on the Global PED Navigator, that illustrates how and when patients can be engaged in the generation and use of patient experience data.
Peer-reviewed publications to increase the awareness of PE & PED integration for healthcare decision-making
Throughout 2022 we focused on a single goal: to develop and leverage a co-created suite of tools and resources to embed an iterative learning process that increases PE intelligence within, and between, organizations.
Initiatives included recalibration of ESG commitments and metrics to complement current strategies with the inclusion of a more patient-centric focus, a tool to empower patients to provide feedback, the development and launch of a digital tool mapping PE metrics (see Metrics Selector) and more!
A bi-directional feedback resource tool, part of the Monitoring to Learn Strategy toolbox, was initiated with over 45+ PE ambassadors defining the guiding principles and key themes.
Find out morePatient Engagement for better ESG became a key topic in 2022.
A taskforce was initiated and quickly became active in defining the project’s approach in order to embed a PE perspective into ESG/Sustainability strategies. Exploratory meetings with industry, leading ESG experts, and others (eg IFPMA, BSRT) helped define the project’s scope.
Metrics Selector Tool launched and already in piloting
A long-awaited co-created agile tool for identifying the right measurements for patient engagement practices has been launched in 2022, and has almost immediately entered in the regular use of PE champions.
It was also presented at the “1st International Workshop on Patient and Public Involvement in Cancer Research”
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Enabling culture change and an increased understanding of patient engagement (and its value) in the medtech sector is a key priority for the PFMD membership. Moreover, integrating the medtech perspective in all key PFMD workstreams and activities has been an important priority of 2022.
In addition to socializing and encouraging adoption of the patient engagement tools for medtech developed in 2021, 2022 saw a focus on capacity building - with an emphasis on developing an adapted version of the Patient Engagement Training.
This training is the first of its kind in the Medical Devices sector and will help accelerate the awareness and adoption of Patient Engagement practice and culture within the Medical Device community.
In addition to furthering the training and its adoption in 2023, the focus will be on building a PE Medtech cases repository and identifying MedTech-specific metrics of measurement.
Find out moreIn 2022 the focus was exploring and prioritizing opportunities for greater patient engagement in post-launch activity, including post-market monitoring and pharmacovigilance, reporting to regulatory agencies, sharing product information with the patient community, RWD/RWE, as well as on the co-creation of needed resources.
A co-creation session with 100+ experts and patient engagement leads helped define a strategy for development and growth for 2023
Find out more5 potential tactics and areas of focus have been identified following the co-creation activities and insights gathering
Strengthened collaboration with Medical Affairs Professional Society through a speaking opportunity at the MAPS Webinar.
In 2022 we focused on exploring the appetite to address current challenges, opportunities, and good practices, and identify potential ways to enhance the ecosystem, building on the publication in 2021 of the How-to Guide for PE in early discovery and preclinical research.
PEOF session with insights and input from participants to inform strategy for 2023.Check out the PEOF Summary publication to learn more.
5 potential tactics and areas of focus have been identified following the co-creation activities and insights gathering
Building our capacity and capability was of course a priority once again last year. Together with our partners, EPF and EUPATI, we poured our resources into our networks and tools that bring those with an interest in PE together.
2022 was a particularly inspiring year for the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) Community - a community of purpose, multicultural and multidisciplinary, and fully committed to patient engagement.
One million people reached in 2022 by PEOF’s work and contributions
60,000 people actively engaged in the community
1,500 participants in the virtual collaborative sessions
129 patient engagement champions working live for the first time in 3 years
Click here to access all of the PEOF sessions & resources.
During 2022 PEOF provoked change… and not in a theoretical, “some day in the future” sense. But here. Now. During many intense sessions, in collaborative Group Maps and over long coffee chats. All participants actively co-created ongoing projects in Patient Engagement and dared to dream about new ones.
Initiatives shaped by PEOF co-creation power
In 2022 PEOF became about engineering patient engagement as a movement, as a fundamental principle of our health ecosystem. Highlights include:
Organizing the first live event in 3 years. 129 patient engagement catalysts rolling up their sleeves for 3 days in the sunny Barcelona.
45+ inspiring voices driving change in the patient engagement community, including Maria Mavris from EMA, Theresa Mullin, from FDA, Sharon Terry from Genetic Alliance and Jan Geissler from Patvocates.
First PEOF session in Japanese ran by our JPPaC partners.
First collaborative session with DIA Global
Co-development of remuneration standards for interactions between the patient community and the pharmaceutical industry has been a key priority for PFMD and all the partners for years now. This includes the co-creation of frameworks and a methodology to operationalize the Global Principles for determining fair remuneration at market value.
Over 20 pharmaceutical companies and 40 patient organizations have been involved in the co-creation process until now, together with key bodies such as the IFPMA Patient Centricity Working Group, the Efpia Ethics and Compliance Committee, and the Efpia Patient Think Tank
Through co-creation and stakeholder engagement, the project developed resources to support patient engagement partners and drive good practice whilst ensuring compliance with relevant Codes of Conduct and local regulations. Project resources include:
Global Principles for remunerating the patient community for interactions with the pharmaceutical industry.
Harmonizing and building on previous collaborative work, these Principles provide objective guidance to drive consistent, fair and transparent remuneration.
Global Remuneration Frameworks
Fair remuneration must consider the complexity of the patient
engagement activity and the expertise required. To operationalize this aspect of the
Global Principles, the Global Activity and Expertise Frameworks were co-created,
building on previous collaborative work.
The Frameworks are the foundation of a
global methodology for determining fair remuneration.
Fair Patient Engagement Planner
A practical digital tool to define patient engagements and drive transparent dialogue on fair remuneration.
Coming in 2023
Synapse, your digital tool for patient engagement, enables more effective action, bringing initially disconnected, isolated, or duplicative activities within a structured PE framework. Beyond a traditional website, Synapse maps and connects experts, organizations, events, initiatives, and resources, empowering all players in the PE ecosystem.
Synapse is a network with:
4500+ Experts
1500+ Organizations
600+ Initiatives
430+ Events
1600+ Resources
Synapse has been awarded a tender by EPF and selected as the ideal hosting platform for the IMI EU PEARL Patient Engagement Platform. The project will run from October 2022 to March 2023.
Synapse registered a total of 35,275 sessions, and a total of 1470 new users in 2022, with a growth of 37%
Building collective intelligence from the community with the release of the patient expertise survey.
Supporting the monitoring to learn approach for patient engagement through the launch of the Metrics Selector.
Coming in 2023:
Navigating Country Codes of Conduct and other regulations that impact interactions between pharmaceutical companies and the patient community can be an overwhelming task. The Patient Engagement (PE) Guidelines provide a quick reference to point all key stakeholders in the right direction!
The country-specific resources outline parameters from country Codes of Conduct that govern interactions between the patient community and pharmaceutical companies in terms of remuneration, reimbursement, hospitality and transfer of value reporting.
The Country Patient Engagement Guidelines resources will be integrated in Synapse and are made possible in collaboration with CGO Global and Lumanity.
In 2022 the first PE Guidelines for The Netherlands, Belgium, and Spain were launched, alongside an editorial focused on the project. More countries will be included in 2023
Create a scalable capacity & capability program for the acceleration of patient engagement in Asia is a key PFMD focus. It includes the sharing of PE resources and best practices, while spreading awareness regarding PE through the Center of Regulatory Excellence (CoRE) and Coalition to Accelerate Patient Engagement in Asia-Pacific (CAPE).
On November 22, the first ever Japan-focused PEOF session was held by Japanese Patients for Patient-Centric Care (JPPaC) to adapt PFMD resources, the Patient Engagement Quality Guidance (PEQG) and Synapse, to the local context of Japan.
Ongoing dialogue with various regional players to develop new and/or support existing capacity & capability-building programs will continue in 2023.
In 2022 we expanded the reach of PFMD’s co-created PE Industry training through promotional campaigns, whitepapers, partnerships, adapting it to the needs for the Medtech Industry, and exploring potential new organizations that can implement the PE Training internally.
38,000+ People enrolled
210+ Organizations taking the training
90+ Countries
PFMD’s network and impact grow every year due to the relentless support of its members and contributors, as well as their involvement in advancing patient engagement across many different dimensions.
8,137 People closely following PFMD's activity
People in PFMD database
238,758 Active interactions on PFMD channels
Total engagements
2,942,623 People reached by PFMD messages
Total reach
44,635 People interacting with our various tools
Total views on PFMD & PEM Suite web pages
PFMD continues to welcome new members from across the entire PE ecosystem as we enrich and broaden our membership base year on year. New members who joined our ranks in 2022 include
The healthcare system evolves every day. But access to life-saving clinical trials is still a challenge. An open, non-competitive repository of clinical protocols enriched with additional structure and information for better matching of clinical trials.
The solution? An open, non-competitive repository of clinical protocols that are enriched with additional structure and information so that better matches can be made between patients and providers of clinical trials.
Find out moreTwo pilots ongoing for breast cancer and multiple myeloma
A completed Pilot Demo that demonstrates the potential structured clinical trial data in matching and the opportunity to enrich clinical trials with additional data from Patients and Patient Organizations
Diversity & Inclusion strategy: identified and validated additional elements to enrich clinical protocols in the pilot based on insights from the in-person PEOF
Demo Pilot presented at Clinical Trial Europe, Amsterdam
The digital health group showcased in 2022 a dedicated effort to map, understand, define and align on the role of patients in digital health through three ongoing workstreams:
Structuring the discussion via a digital health landscape mapping & taxonomy. Tother with identifying the needs, opportunities, benefits, and challenges of engaging patients in digital health, it all fed into a publication on taxonomy of PE in digital health.
Developing guiding principles, resources, and best practices in digital health data governance models. The focus was building on the input of PFMD members and the April & June Patient Engagement Open Forums. The goal? Understanding how patient rights regarding data management are currently defined and protected through the analysis of existing governance models, thus feeding the adaptation of PE Quality Guidance for digital health.
PE access, awareness, and capacity building in digital health. Through leveraging resources and adapting existing PFMD tools, such as Synapse and the PE Quality Guidance, for digital health.
A key focus in 2023 will be the Stakeholder Expectations Matrix focused on patient engagement and digital health.
Aligning with other initiatives and platforms to build strategic relationships and develop expertise
2 404 000
Turnover
1 425 000
Membership fees
2 365 431
Project expenses
979 000
Specially funded projects
Nicholas Brooke
Executive Director
Hayley Chapman
Senior Program Director
Elizabeth Priest
Program Director
Jean-Christophe Capelle
Financial Director
Roxana Radu
Senior Communication Manager
Nicole Wicki
Program Director
Silvia Bornengo
Program Manager
Lidewij Eva Vat
Program Director
Vincent Raske
Associate Program Manager
Lise Brooke
Product Owner & Communication Manager
Adeola Aderemi
Communication Manager
Maximiliane Rauch
Program Manager
Danielle Barron
Editor in Chief
Brian Goodman
Program Director
Daniela Luzuriaga Ubilla
Program Manager
Quentin Clermont
Chief Operations Officer
Gulwish Ahmed
Communication Manager
Gary Finnegan
Editor in Chief, Break Dengue
Ify Sargeant
Scientific Editor
Jeremy Jamar
IT Architect
Matt Szafert
Executive Assistant
Maddalena Benivento
Program Manager
Diana Aron
Program Manager
Fabienne Zeegers
Regulatory Affairs Consultant
Nicola Bedlington
Collaborator
Laura Mckeaveney
Collaborator
