HBA European Leadership Summit – Understanding the patient to provide better care

At the annual HBA European Leadership Summit, over 200 leaders in healthcare and life sciences industries came together to explore the unique challenges and opportunities shaping the European healthcare ecosystem. Baringa’s Laveshni Reddy hosted a panel with three industry leaders to discuss the value of better understanding the patient and how this can be integrated systematically and meaningfully across organisations.

True patient partnership means early involvement, active listening, co-creation and shared decision-making, recognising their lived experience as expertise. Involving patients throughout the product lifecycle can unlock significant value – enhancing product differentiation, accelerating and improving the quality of clinical trials and delivering more impactful patient experiences that strengthen market reputation.

We asked attendees where they are on their patient engagement journey and explored their challenges, critical success factors and the myths that need busting to drive real change. We also uncovered valuable insights into the real-world benefits of meaningful patient engagement.

Where we stand, what’s holding us back and what needs to change

All of the top 25 global pharma companies mention patients or people in their mission or vision statements, reflecting a strong commitment to patient-centricity. Yet, when asked how well patient engagement is embedded in their organisations, attendees gave an average score of just 5.4 out of 10, with only 11% rating their organisation a 9 or 10.

Leadership prioritisation and support emerged as both the greatest challenge and the most critical success factor in advancing patient engagement. Internal roles, processes, and data were also seen as essential to success, yet significant barriers. While limited resources, such as time, budget, and people, were frequently cited as obstacles, they were not seen as key to success. Instead, organisational culture and capability were identified as the main drivers for sustainable change. The overwhelming misconception centred on compliance and data use, followed by doubts about the value of patient engagement, and assumptions that patients lack interest.  

*Data from top 25 global pharma by revenue

Compliance risk and the use of patient experience data was cited by 56% of attendees as the biggest myth. But...is there really "too much compliance risk" in patient engagement? Learn more bout out perspective in this article 'Busting the myth: is there really "too much compliance risk" in patient engagement?'

When patients are involved and their experience truly understood, the impact is powerful:

• 44% of attendees report a greater employee motivation and engagement, driven by a deeper connection to their organisation’s mission.
• 30% are seeing tangible improvements in patient experience and outcomes, thanks to reduced complexity, faster processes, and more patient-centred decisions.

Here’s a snapshot of where these organisations are focusing their efforts:

• Treating patient engagement as a top priority - setting clear goals, committing resources, and making patient experience part of everyday decisions.
• Making engagement easier with clear roles, processes, and a focus on building long-term, trusted partnerships with patients and patient organisations starting early in R&D.
• Developing mechanisms to collect, harmonise and share patient experience data making it easier to learn from, measure impact, and show return on investment
• Building skills across all roles, not just patient-facing ones through encouraging shared responsibility and a better understanding of why, when and how to engage patients
• Bringing purpose to life through storytelling and patient events helping employees feel more inspired and connected