We're working on keeping pace with patients. They aren't waiting around to beempowered.They're taking power into their hands, and they expect us to be with them on that journey.
We're working on keeping pace with patients. They aren't waiting around to beempowered.They're taking power into their hands, and they expect us to be with them on that journey.
Our patients want more than medicine. They want to know that their medicines have been developed with their needs in mind, and that we are willing to share health and disease information that can help them and their doctors make the best decisions. Today, Pfizer is among the leaders in patient-centered health care, notably, in patient-centered drug development.
People today are able to find and exchange more health information than ever before. As patients and their families become more informed, they also become more involved — more active in their own care, starting with the biomedical research that results in new therapies.
We welcome an era where patients are willing to say, Nothing about us, without us.
We are taking action to dive much more deeply
into learning what patients really want from their medicines and vaccines. Patient voices, directly and through advocates, increasingly inform
how our clinical trials are designed and what value
in a new medicine or vaccine means to them. Pfizer is deploying a host of new
approaches to patient-centered drug development, from crowdsourcing to medical ethnology.
Patient concerns matter. Beyond listening more closely, we are sharing information we gather with patients in ways that are more relevant for them and, importantly, we are working to act on what we hear from patients and their families and from patient advocates. This can only help in our concerted efforts to improve people's lives.
The THRIVE app (Teen Health Resources, Information and Vaccine Education) encourages parents to begin a dialogue with their teens or young adults on important health topics, and help them manage their own health. Parents can create profiles for each child and keep track of their health records, including vaccinations and well-visits, and checklist items. The app features an extensive library of teen health and wellness topics relevant to this transformative and often complex stage of life. It also provides conversation starters for difficult or sensitive topics, such as drinking, smoking, sexual health, social media and more. THRIVE was developed in partnership with the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine and the UNITY Consortium. Available on Apple and Android products, THRIVE can be downloaded for free.
To help Pfizer and others learn more about what children need from us, the head of our Pediatric Center of Excellence, Charles A. Thompson, M.D., FAAP, participates in the International Children's Advisory Network (iCAN) — a worldwide consortium of youth advisory groups working together to provide a voice for children and families in health, medicine, research and innovation through synergy, communication and collaboration. The network has been under development since 2013, when the KIDS (Kids and Families Impacting Disease through Science) program was launched as a broad collaboration with pediatric stakeholders, including Pfizer, the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Advances in Therapeutics and Technology, and the Hezekiah Beardsley Connecticut Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. iCAN officially launched in June 2015 with a global research summit held in Washington, D.C., which was attended by more than 130 youth advisors, parents, leaders and partners from Australia, North America and Europe. Along with Pfizer, partners include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, the European Medicines Agency, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Children's National Medical Center, as well as other biopharma companies and contract research organizations that learn from and offer feedback on pediatric issues.
iCAN gives children and their parents a voice in the innovation process. Their experiences and perspectives can inform the industry and policymakers about advancements that can improve pediatric medicine.
Pfizer receives numerous requests for compassionate use of experimental drugs to treat patients with life-threatening diseases or conditions who have exhausted all other treatment options. To streamline the process and to ensure fast, fair review of requests, Pfizer has launched a compassionate use portal at PfizerCAReS.com. Here, treating physicians can readily request compassionate use considerations for their patients, with assurances that such requests will be reviewed thoroughly but expeditiously by Pfizer's medical experts.
Pfizer has stepped up its engagement with patients, caregivers and the health care community through the public outreach of our Chief Medical Officer, Freda Lewis-Hall, M.D., Pfizer Medical and research organizations. Dr. Lewis-Hall's appearances on popular television shows such as Dr. Phil and The Doctors, together with medical information offered on the Get Healthy, Stay Healthy website, connect U.S. audiences with medical resources and useful tools for managing personal and family health. GetOld.com and social media engage audiences to think positively about aging and to take active and mindful ownership of their lives. In 2015, this program surpassed 90 million views of Pfizer medical content.
