A Patient Journey Isn't the Solution to Pharma Marketing—It's the Beginning

Megan Hillen

Megan Hillen is a planning supervisor at Intouch Solutions.

In 1898, Elias St. Elmo Lewis developed a sales framework known as the AIDA model. The revolutionary tool was the first visualization of the multistaged consumer pathway to a brand, from awareness to consideration to purchase. Since then, nearly a century has passed and the “consumer funnel” remains a go-to framework for marketers.

In the world of pharma marketing, we use a similar model. We call it the patient journey.

The traditional patient journey follows a patient through a funnel to a certain prescription through an AIDA-like approach. The stages most often consist of diagnosis, drug cycling and consideration, drug initiation, adherence and retention.

However, in an attempt to simplify the experience we lose out on incredibly rich emotional, behavioral and cultural factors that are inherent to a person battling a disease. Such factors are most often the keys to innovative solutions that could improve their lives. Perhaps the fault is in that we think of patients as consumers before we think of them as humans. Facing a debilitating battle against your body is a far cry from deciding which toothpaste to buy and it shouldn't be treated as such.

How exactly does our traditional journey model fall short?

It assumes every patient's journey is linear. No two fingerprints are the same. And no two patients have the same experience with their condition. We need to be mindful of the many nuances—such as severity level, health literacy and access to care—that impact the path and speed at which the journey progresses per individual.