Challenge

A dermatology brand at a large pharmaceutical company wanted to:

• Understand drivers of treatment consideration and uptake, and potential barriers and motivators to treatment initiation
• Better characterize and segment treaters and non-treaters by real-world behaviors 
• Quantify differences in quality of life among treaters with more objective, participant-focused data

Their existing approach to measuring quality of life was limited in that it didn’t fully capture the day-to-day experience of sufferers and relied too much on patient recall. They also needed a more segmented approach to HCP and patient marketing to better support and drive consideration among specific types of patients.

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Approach

Evidation rapidly recruited approximately 800 participants from its app-based community into a decentralized observational study. Participants included both individuals with skin condition of interest as well as caregivers. 

Participants shared permissioned data with us including:

• Up to 8 months of wearable and device data (e.g., sleep, activity, heart rate) collected prior to enrollment and during the observation period
• ePROs and surveys on their lived experience and healthcare and medication journey
• 3-month follow-up survey to assess changes in quality of life and disease progression over time

We used advanced statistical analysis of high-density digital measures and self-report patient data to put the data in context for the brand and make it actionable.

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Outcomes

Through high participant engagement, including 86% survey compliance at the 3-month follow up, the brand uncovered:

• Key drivers and barriers related to getting a prescription, including differences by specific sub-segments
• Gaps in support and education that were hindering treatment initiation
• Differences in sleep quality and quality of life for treaters vs. other segments based on ePROs and wearable data

The study highlighted opportunities to improve their marketing strategy, as well as potential applications for value communication:

• Comparative treatment effectiveness
• Product differentiation 
• Scientific communication
• Enhanced segmentation for marketing effectiveness
• Inform patient and caregiver support, from diagnosis to adherence

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Evidation Differentiators

• Fast access to an engaged, well-characterized patient population who were eager to share their health experience
• Digital measures from wearable and device data added a new, objective view of how the skin condition impacted both patients’ and caregivers’ sleep and daily activities in their everyday life, and how that varied by different segments of treatments