Putting Patients First—KCR’s Contribution to Patient-Centric Approach in Clinical Trials

Berlin-September 18, 2017-Patient-centricity has recently been a key word in the healthcare and drug development industry. KCR, a Contract Research Organization (CRO), is introducing a new project which is solely based on a patient-centric approach: #HumanBehindEveryNumber. The project has been designed to learn more about patients in clinical trials; it is based on the voices and perspectives of real patients who are participating in clinical trials.

“Clinical trials focus around patients’ needs and improve the quality of their life. However, we as the R&D industry do not know much about the real patients’ experience before and during the clinical trial enrollment: what are their thoughts, what are their fears? The idea behind the project was to receive feedback from patients who have been or are part of a clinical trial regarding their motivations, concerns, and convictions, said Mike Jagielski, President & CEO of KCR. 

The CRO teamed up with a service design firm, The Story, to conduct the project as a service design study. The project team built direct and meaningful contacts with patients gathering their views via interviews and workshops. It has resulted in recognizing the journey of patients in a clinical trial and mapping their emotions at every stage.

“The industry talks a lot about a patient-centric approach nowadays but finding real comments from patients is not so easy. #HumanBehindEveryNumber brings you close to patients to learn how they feel when they are treated with a new drug, which questions they have and which answers they need and receive,” added Mr. Jagielski.

The project has been conducted across different countries, so far including Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, and UK, with the US in the nearest plans. The study is ongoing and the team is continuously gathering biographies of people struggling with different diseases and documenting their lives as patients in clinical trials. All these makes the unique content of the project website: humanbehindeverynumber.com including the real patients’ voices and maps of their emotions. 

“We wish to share the project results with the whole industry, initiate a discussion about measurement scales, and develop effective methodologies with specialists from pharma, CROs, and service design companies. We believe that a truly patient-centric approach will contribute to a better trial design in the future. However, to reach this point we need to research thoroughly what patient centricity means exactly,” summarized Mr. Jagielski.

Should you need any further information about #HumanBehindEveryNumber and/or would like to speak to KCR’s CEO, Mike Jagielski, please contact Joanna Lewandowska, PR & Marketing, at joanna.lewandowska@kcrcro.com.

The media pack of the project is available under this link.

If you would like to join the project as a patient and share your story, or became a partner to shape the future of clinical trial design together with KCR, please click here or contact us at info@humanbehindeverynumber.com

About KCR

KCR is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) providing clinical development solutions for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. More than 300 professionals support clients with full-service capabilities across our three main service areas: Trial Execution (TE), Functional Service Provision (FS) and Late Phase (LP). Focusing on knowledge, quality and innovation, KCR offers reliable, customized and fast solutions to fulfill the clients' needs. The company’s geographical set up suits perfectly to deliver optimized trial execution strategies. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, KCR operates across 20 countries in Europe, Asia as well as the U.S. This year the company celebrates its 20^th anniversary. For more information, visit www.kcrcro.com

KCR: We see human behind every number.