EyeForPharma, Philadelphia – Laura Barry, Senior Director Customer Insights, Analytics and Experiences at Abbvie believes emotional connections can be made in the digital space.

She started out with a powerful idea:

In our industry, that can be a prescription for medicine + hope.

Our role is providing the medicines, support and experiences that fuel that hope and earn the patient’s commitment to every day treatment and care.

Barry works in the cystic fibrosis space. The life expectancy of someone living with CF has doubled in the last 30 years. In the 1950s, people lived to grade school age. Today, they live into their 20s, 30s and 40s.

Barry introduced us to one of the patients who is their true north: a young woman in her 20s who has been in the hospital 75 or 100 times; uses treatments 2 – 3 hours / day; and loves music, her brother and a big gray dog. She’s healthy and sick and facing an incredibly unique challenge among her peers.

The team at Abbvie thinks a lot about how to motivate teenagers and young people. To do that, they need to understand their real experiences – not just their disease.

As a data lead, Barry wanted to change the data people were looking at:

  • From healthcare transaction models (like patient flow, leakage model, waterfalls)
  • To holistic patient journeys anchored in real life human experience

The transaction models were very precise but couldn’t answer basic questions about why – why is that behavior is happening, why is that change happening, etc.

They used customer-centric research techniques, like live chat, surveys, diaries, video chat, etc. Then, they got the entire integrated brand team (including legal and regulatory) involved in ethnography.

All of that research provided empathy and understanding that drove better marketing. It also cleared a lot of pathways when legal and regulatory partners had the same gut-level understanding of patient experience and patient needs.

In digital channels, they layered that empathy with understanding of how the teenage CF patient is leveraging screens and devices to deliver the right content in the right channel with the right context.

One of the innovative solutions they created is a Tumblr called Through Thick and Thin.

It’s an incredible collection of education and inspiration designed to support patients who, as one young women explained, have their health entirely in their own hands:

Much of the content on the site is co-created with consumers. It has over 7,000 followers, many of who are engaging and reblogging (at 250% higher engagement than tumblr benchmark). Over half the users are repeat visitors and new people join at 20+/day.

About the Author:

As Managing Director of Innovation and Insights for Syneos Health Communications, Leigh is responsible for building and scaling a global team of healthcare experts who together help life science leaders better understand the complex lives, influences and expectations of their customers. Specifically, they uncover actionable insights that fuel empathy and creativity; lead co-creation events that let marketers learn from peers, trends, and new possibilities; and help clients identify the most valuable and useful new customer experiences to create.

Leigh has worked with Fortune 1000 companies to craft their digital, mobile, social and CRM strategies for nearly 20 years.She’s worked for category-leading agencies in retail, public affairs, B2B technology, and higher education. Prior to moving to Syneos Health Communications, she held several leadership roles at our largest agency, GSW.  There, she founded an innovation practice fueled by the zeitgeist and spearheaded digital and innovation thinking across the business.

Leigh has taken a special interest in complex healthcare products that can change lives in meaningful ways. She was recently a strategic lead on the 3rd largest launch in pharmaceutical history: Tecfidera. Before that she had keys roles with Eli Lilly Oncology, Abbott Nutrition, Amgen Cardiovascular, and Eli Lilly Diabetes.

A critical part of Leigh’s work is trends and new ideas. Every year, she convenes a group of trend watchers from across our global network to identify the shifts most critical to healthcare marketers. This year, she led over 250 experts to experts to focus on the most important changes in the commercial, consumer, marketing, digital and healthcare landscapes. (See reports at trends.health)

Leigh is a sought-after writer and speaker. Recognized as one of the most inspiring people in the pharmaceutical industry by PharmaVoice and Top 10 Innovation Catalysts of 2017 by MM&M, Leigh also was recognized  as a Rising Star by the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) for her overt passion, industry thought leadership and significant contributions in new business, strategy and mentoring.