EP194: Why Capturing Patient Reported Outcomes Makes a Whole Lot of Sense, With Dyan Bryson of Inspired Health Strategies

Dyan is the owner of a patient-focused consultancy, Inspired Health Strategies, LLC (IHS). After spending 20+ years in Big Pharma in traditional sales and marketing roles, in 2007 Dyan began working as a contractor with Sanofi. She was brought in to develop a multi-cultural marketing initiative and Dyan had little hope of making much of an impact until she realized that Sanofi was serious as evidenced by their commitment to a hefty budget and an enterprise-wide effort. She knew that, given her past experience combined with a non-traditional approach to market research, she could help Sanofi develop a groundbreaking program. What was developed was a program that incorporated the patient’s ecosystem into a branded and non-branded initiative that resulted in documented behavior change and significant contribution to the bottom-line. The Community Health Partnership (CHP) changed her brain – she now understood the opportunity the industry was missing by not understanding the value of the patient.

Since that Sanofi initiative Dyan has been an evangelist for patient engagement. But after years of trying to push the industry in this patient-focused direction she was ready to give up…until she attended the March 19, 2018 FDA meeting regarding the Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) initiative. The FDA was going to actually issue guidance that echoes Dyan’s mantra – that patients should be involved in drug development, in a meaningful way, from pre-Investigative New Drug Application (IND) through commercial. This has rejuvenated Dyan’s efforts as she watches and helps the industry sort out how to comply with this guidance. Compliance will demand a change in thinking in the industry and will produce great results for patients.

Dyan’s efforts have been recognized by her being included in the PharmaVoice 100 Innovators in Life Sciences. Dyan has been published in several industry journals including Pharmaceutical Commerce and The Journal of Patient Adherence and is a frequent speaker at industry meetings.

You can learn more about PFDD and see case studies on the work of IHS at Dyan’s website www.inspiredhealthstrategies.com, follow Dyan @InspiredHealth_