Patient intelligence

Patient Intelligence (PI) refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help an organization acquire a better understanding of its position in the healthcare context. Patient Intelligence may also refer to the collected information of the patients itself.

PI applications provide historical, current and predictive views of current situation regarding behavior and intentions of persons suffering from a disorder, disease and/or complaint. Common functions of patient intelligence applications are reporting, analytics, health economic models, business performance management, benchmarks, patient brochures validation and predictive analytics.

Patient Intelligence often aims to support better decision-making in the healthcare environment. Thus a PI system can be called a decision support system (DSS).

'The greatest potential benefits from involving patients, as distinct from the public,would lie in improving the effectiveness of care and treatment through transforming the interaction between patients and health professionals.'

History
In 2008, researcher Drs Nadine van Dongen used the term patient intelligence. After doing research for pharmaceutical companies on patient intelligence, she committed herself to make a change in the healthcare environment as the patient should be at the heart of the focus of all organisations in healthcare, so she introduced this new term into the healthcare environment in 2009. Today she is writing articles and a book on this subject.

Applications of Patient Intelligence
Making patients' voices audible, in order to improve efficacy in healthcare, can be achieved through qualitative or quantitative research. Efficacy in healthcare can be increased by carrying out research aimed at finding out how to integrate the missing components of patient experience and their perceived value into quality standards within the healthcare environment.

In order to create a platform for patients and to ensure quantitative research is feasible, a specific 'Patient Intelligence Panel' (PIP) is formed where patients can register to participate in research. Having access, through the internet, to thousands of people around the world who are willing to participate in research on healthcare and specific indications, means questions can be asked and a wide range of feedback obtained. Through the aid of consumer marketing models, this feedback can then be integrated into a structured, defined path and into marketing campaigns, for every stage of a product's life cycle.

All stakeholders in the healthcare environment can utilise this PIP to gain access to their patients. Patients have been very committed to contributing their opinions through online questionnaires at the PIP platform and in focus group discussions with the PIP members. For the most part, patients were very excited about being able to contribute to broadening the views and perceptions of large pharmaceutical companies. When a PIP member fills in a questionnaire, an incentive is paid towards the patient organisation or charity of the member's choice.