Patient pathway

The Alcimed Healthcare team has established acknowledged expertise in the analysis and optimization of patient care pathways, and helps its clients to interpret and improve patients’ therapeutic and emotional pathways, as well as the role of key stakeholders (healthcare professionals, patient associations, relatives or caregivers, etc.) in patient pathways, starting from the pre-diagnosis phases to palliative care.

Challenges related to patient pathways or care pathways

• What is a patient pathway?

Patient pathway or care pathway refers to all the stages a patient experiences in the management of his or her disease, from pre-diagnosis to palliative care. Thus, the various stages of a patient’s care pathway are mainly carried out by private healthcare professionals, in hospitals, in healthcare establishments, in medico-social structures or at the patient’s home: consultations with general practitioners or specialists, diagnostic or screening procedures, various treatments, home monitoring, etc.

• What are the challenges related to the patient pathway and to the care pathway?

The efficiency of care pathways is a key problem area for all those involved in the healthcare system, who face their own challenges:

• Patients who, while they become increasingly involved in their care, are looking to access the best treatments, to improve their quality of life, to better control their emotions, and to access to a comprehensive service with coordinated care, in order to maximize their chances of recovery.
  The foregoing necessarily implies increased clarity of the care pathway, the roles of each stakeholder involved throughout the patient care pathway, the solutions (products and services) available to patients, and an understanding of the emotional impact of their disease.

• Healthcare authorities, who are tasked with making the healthcare system more efficient and modern, by optimizing patient care at the local, regional and national level, curbing inequality in access to care –which varies greatly from one territory to another– while limiting healthcare expenses and specifically hospitalization expenses (the shift to outpatient care, for example, represents one of the solutions for reducing hospitalizations implemented by many countries).

• Accordingly, healthcare professionals, seek ongoing improvement in their practices in order to provide the best possible care for their patients, better coordination with all the stakeholders in a sector (private, hospital, medico-social, institutions, health insurance and insurers, etc.), and support from state structures to facilitate patient management, for example by managing patient data.

• Healthcare manufacturers, suppliers of drugs and medical devices, who play an active role in the process of improving care pathways through various actions bringing value to patients, doctors, healthcare authorities, and beyond their products: through funding and implementing patient pathway optimization programs, by developing solutions and services (e.g. mobile applications for monitoring treatment, medical telemonitoring solutions, etc.) or, for example, by setting up new roles at the interface between industry and private/hospital (e.g. MSL –Medical Science Liaison– wo are becoming fundamental stakeholders in regional healthcare ecosystems). All of these actions help to establish the healthcare industry manufacturers in an even more public position.

• And many other stakeholders who face their own challenges and have a fundamental role in care pathways, such as home care providers, pharmacists, insurers, etc.

More generally, many challenges affect all the stakeholders involved, starting with the patient, and can be optimized by establishing a process to optimize the care pathway:

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How do we support you in your patient pathway or care pathway optimization projects?

The core goal of the projects we conduct regarding patient pathways is to improve a healthcare sector’s performance at the local or regional level, in order to create value for patients, healthcare professionals, healthcare authorities and pharmaceutical companies.

Alcimed has developed a “Care Pathways Efficiency Program” (PEPS) which makes it possible to improve the performance of care pathways inside and outside the hospital, by implementing a proven methodological approach, working in close collaboration with the various stakeholders involved throughout the pathway (diagnostic centers, hospitals, home care workers, patient associations, etc.).

We audit patient pathways, identify optimization mainsprings, and generate action plans for improvement at various levels of healthcare systems, which we implement in close collaboration with the various stakeholders.

Most of our projects are initiated at the local or regional level. Since issues and contexts often differ from one geography to another, it is important to consider the context of each center or each branch locally before extrapolating care pathway optimization levers to a higher level.

Alcimed has already conducted more than a hundred “PEPS” initiatives worldwide (in Europe, the United States, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, etc.) on many issues and in various pathologies (e.g. respiratory diseases such as pulmonary arterial hypertension or interstitial lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or hypercholesterolemia, but also in oncology, neurology, gastroenterology and hepatology, etc.).

We have conducted more than 100 projects up to now for different stakeholders such as: pharmaceutical laboratories, medical device players, biotech companies, healthcare authorities, national and regional institutions, and patient associations.

Beyond our PEPS offering, here are other kinds of projects we conduct for our clients regarding care pathways:

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EXAMPLES OF RECENT PROJECTS CARRIED OUT FOR OUR CLIENTS IN PATIENT PATHWAYS