There are various ways to approach Patient Insight research.

Let’s start with the traditional method: Listening & Asking

While this method is not necessarily bad, there are several risks associated with this.

• Patient may not be able to explain their own consumer activities
• Patient may rely on context (surveys and interviews have no context)
• Some feelings cannot be expressed with words
• Patients are influenced by their subconscious and intuition
• Emotional component of decision-making
• Recall of memories may vary depending on timing and environment

For these various reasons, “Observation & Sensing” is sometimes preferred.

An example is wearable sensor devices that can measure heart rate and activity level.

Advantages of this method include:

• Data collection with context (Action observation, social listening, community)
• Tools that can capture the moment of decision-to-buy (mobile phone survey, sensor tracking, community)
• Technology to measure emotions and responses (brain waves, heat maps, facial expression analysis, community)
• Platform for natural input (market forecast, gamification, sensor app)

We’ll explore the use of social media and community in the next blog post.