Patient solutions

In 2010, UCB has set up a new department focusing on Patients Solutions. The goal of this team with the help of cross-functional Innovation and Business Review teams, is to not only provide patients with the best medicines, but also to go that step further and develop additional tools and support for patients, families and care givers to help them more optimally manage their lives and help the patient achieve a better outcome.

Patient Solutions can be as varied as the different stages of the disease “journey” that patients are experiencing: beginning with the first symptoms, continuing to diagnosis, then to treatment choice and optimisation and eventually the improved life with disease.  All those steps and stages are different from one disease to another one. 

Patient Solutions are for instance tools to help the patient remember to take his medicines, tools to help the patient track how he is feeling so that he can share an accurate report with his healthcare giver (physician, nurse, pharmacist, etc), tools to help educate the community about a certain disease so that patients might understand their disease earlier, special or different packaging of UCB products for patients, or alternatives to picking up medicine at the pharmacy.

An illustrative example of a tool developed in 2010 is the Parkinson’s disease ‘Wellness Map’.  It is a simple and easy-to-use visual scale used to objectify and monitor both motor and non-motor symptoms by the patients.  The map helps them to assess their health status, facilitate communication with their doctor, and make the most of limited time available during consultation.