disease management
care pathways
Some products and services are simple substitutes for existing alternatives. Many, however, involve changing the disease management process in ways which alter the influencer chain, related aspects of healthcare (such as tests), or the patient journey itself (for example, substituting medical care for surgical care, care at home for care in hospital, outpatient for inpatient treatment etc.). Although these changes may offer significant advantages in comparison with current practice, the need for change is often seen by key decision makers as an obstacle to adoption: this may sometimes be a more powerful negative factor than budget constraints. For example, surgeons may resist the adoption of medical techniques because it threatens their professional practice; managers may resist moving care out of hospital because it threatens their revenues; other priorities may seem to be more important than altering patient pathways even if there are potential benefits.
A sound marketing strategy needs to understand potential resistance and develop ideas about how to support and encourage decision makers to make the effort to introduce new products and new ways of working. To do this, you need to understand fully the current disease management process as well as the changes that will be required.
The patient journey and the disease management process for a condition is usually different in each European country. Translucency provides you with information for each market on how patients of interest present to health services and how the patient is managed. For example, in some countries referral to a hospital specialist is through a family physician gatekeeper while in other countries patients are free to access a hospital specialist of their choice. In some countries, surgical intervention is favoured for a condition while in other countries medical treatment is preferred.