Patient and industry partnership with Flatiron Health
In July 2020, DATA-CAN was approached by Flatiron Health, a healthcare technology and services company focused on accelerating cancer research and improving patient care. Flatiron commissioned DATA-CAN to explore three key areas: patient, clinician, and commercial value.
The patient panel established by DATA-CAN and Flatiron included members of use MY data and the DATA-CAN PPIE Group, with different voices and experiences, to achieve a mix of views and perspectives.
An essential part was for Flatiron Health to explain their value proposition to a group of patients, seeking patient views on whether the process, controls, actions and benefits were clear. The patient group worked collaboratively with the Flatiron team to discuss, clarify and evaluate Flatiron’s overall ‘value proposition’.
A final DATA-CAN report, co-produced with the patient group, listed 16 areas where Flatiron could continue to refine its approach in the UK, together with specific recommendations for each area.
Recommendations included:
- Creating a Flatiron UK PPIE Group and roles for patients in research oversight and data use
- Explaining to patients and the public the value to Flatiron of UK data
- Providing clear examples of how Flatiron could help the NHS and patients, bringing the value to life
- Working with patients to better define and communicate a patient view of ‘fair value’
- Suggestions about communicating with patients at any NHS trust that chooses to partner with Flatiron.
Based on their engagement with the DATA-CAN patient group, Flatiron is adopting many of these recommendations. In direct response to our patient voices, Flatiron is working with a patient advocacy organisation to develop and refine their PPIE programme and has now launched their own PPIE Group.
The framework employed to assess the value proposition in this project was designed to be reusable, and afterwards the patient members undertook further work to produce an “assessment grid” to help any similar approaches from other commercial companies.