This review addresses the importance of implementing a patient-centric approach in current healthcare provision and emphasizes the need to adjust current development and business models for a successful application of patient-centric care.
The purpose of this review is (i) to address the importance of implementing a patient-centric approach in current healthcare provision, (ii) to emphasize the need of modifying current development and business models for a successful application of patient-centric care, (iii) to clarify the importance of patient-centric pharmaceutical drug product design, and (iv) to discuss future market opportunities in which patient-centric pharmaceutical products can bring added value to patients.
Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare
In order to generate a patient-centric basis for guidance during pharmaceutical development, a system composed of design drivers, design inputs, and design outputs can be implemented. The design drivers and design inputs are derived from the targeted patient population and can be identified through routine checkups (e.g., geriatric assessments). Subsequently, patients and healthcare professionals (e.g., doctor, nurse and pharmacist) must work together to identify the most important design outputs and select the most suited pharmaceutical drug product accordingly. This will then contribute for an optimal interaction between the patient and the drug product, which will ultimately lead to an appropriate use and effective treatment [7, 41]. Since patients present different health literacies, the efficient delivery of relevant product information by healthcare professionals will also play an important role in the treatment success [42,43,44]. Studies involving patient-reported outcomes will become an integrating tool of patient-centric pharmaceutical drug product design, as they will collect feedback on experience of patients with a specific drug treatment and contribute for a greater understanding of product design [45, 46].
Patient centricity is expected to have a huge impact in the quality of life of future generations. Consequently, the involved stakeholders need to adapt and integrate a patient-centric approach into their visions, which will allow them to remain competitive and deliver innovative solutions for current patient needs. Substantial efforts have already been made through the development of patient-centric departments or creation programs to keep a closer relationship with patients. Notwithstanding, the pharmaceutical industry and related organizations are still far from reaching its full potential, and a higher predominance of patient centricity in healthcare provision will be expected in future years.
In the years to come, a higher predominance of patient-centric research and patient-centric healthcare systems is expected to be established across developed countries. The adoption of a patient-centric care is expected to benefit patients and contribute for huge savings with healthcare costs. Through a solid commitment of all parts involved, patients will be highly engaged to their therapeutic choices, as these will appropriately address their specific needs. This will contribute for higher adherence levels and reduced events of medication errors or potential adverse drug reactions, which eventually reflect less number of hospitalizations. The recent updates in regulatory regulations encouraging the developing appropriate medicines for special patient populations (e.g., pediatrics and geriatrics) indicate that patient-centric pharmaceutical drug product design is slowly getting shape, with the involved industries also starting to adapt to this new reality. As such, a higher attention and dedication to dosage size reduction during development and manufacturing of solid oral dosage forms will become a standard routine and drug product presentations in the form of multiparticulate systems or minitablets are expected to be more frequent in the upcoming years. 2ff7e9595c
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