Patient Journey Mapping Workshop

Sales & marketing team in the commoditized healthcare market

faces continuous challenge of increasing their market access.
Traditionally, marketing teams use insights gathered from market
data; feedback from sales team and customer interactions to
track market opportunities, customer segments, competition etc.
to create brand plans for increasing market access.
To differentiate offerings, one needs to create a patient centric
communication by understanding the thought process of patients
and doctors at various stages of Patient Journey. Decision making
mapping enables the identification of touch points (important
events in the PJ where a marketing intervention can make a
visible difference).
Awareness & Acceptance of the patients about the impact of
disease and likely complications leads to evaluation of options,
information gathering; selecting and getting treatment for a
specific disease. Broadly, the patient journey can be divided in 4
As: Awareness, Acceptance, Availability and Adherence
The article details a PJ workshop where participants put
themselves in the shoes of patients and Healthcare Practitioners
to map their thought process and identify touch points.
The selection of right set of participants preferably from a
background similar to that of focused patient types with a
personal experience of the targeted disease as a patient or care
giver results in a better understanding of the PJM and most
important touch points. Ex. The beliefs, needs and challenges of a
Respiratory tract patient from a rural market may be entirely
different from the one from a metro.
Steps:
- Setup a doctors clinic
- Ask participants to select a persona- Patient / Doctor/care
giver
Role play:
- Ask participants to act like a patient/ Caregivers waiting in
the reception area before consultation, record their thoughts
in a tablet

- Repeat same for Healthcare practitioner

The observations are compiled and mapped on a PJ chart.
The exercise on all 3 steps enables us to recognize and
prioritize issues faced by stakeholders and touch points
where an organization can add value to treatment journey.
Marketing Interventions at common touch points (Similar
concerns and challenges faced by all stakeholders) were
found to be most effective.
The challenges for a marketer in PJM is
- Availability of resources like trained manpower
- Organizational Commitment
- Use business acumen for identification of topic and focus on
same
An ideal PJM traces patients journey from the early stages of
the disease through all stages of treatment until the desired
final outcome. The insights gathered in the customer journey
mapping allow identification and allocation of resources to
differentiate its offering from others by identifying key
stakeholders and activities; develop skills & capabilities to
increase patient access.