Understanding both the care pathway and the patient journey is crucial for optimizing care delivery. While care pathways describe the clinical sequence of treatments, patient journeys focus on the personal experiences of patients and healthcare professionals (HCP) throughout the disease process, encompassing emotional, physical, logistical, and social aspects.
For metastatic breast cancer (mBC), metastatic prostate cancer (mCRPC), and multiple myeloma (MM), patient journeys remain insufficiently explored in Belgium. Challenges such as fatigue, pain, cognitive dysfunction, and the emotional toll of disease progression often remain under-addressed due to gaps in knowledge about patient and healthcare professional experiences. Our client sought to address these gaps to enhance patient and HCP support by gaining holistic insights into their respective journeys.
The project aimed to gain more insight into the patient as well as the healthcare professional journey for mBC, mCRPC, and MM in Belgium. To reach this aim, we provided support to our client in mapping the patient and HCP journeys.
The specific project objectives included:
Based on the project results our client aimed to:
In a follow-up project, on-site or online meetings with breast cancer teams from hospitals were organized with the aim to
Before the project, we organized exploratory meetings together with our client. These workshops were held to align the company’s ambitions regarding patient engagement with Hict’s expertise in journey mapping. These sessions focused on defining shared goals and setting the foundation for the subsequent project phases. This approach ensured that the methodology described below was optimally tailored to the client’s needs.
The project itself consisted of three separate phases (see figure below).
Phase 1 (kick-off): a workshop aligned project goals and approach, leading to the development of a theoretical journey concept. This framework guided the creation of semi-structured interview guides and a stakeholder map. Interviewees were onboarded.
Phase 2 (Interviews): real-world data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with patients (n=16), physicians (n=24), and nurses (n=13) across 24 hospitals in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. The stakeholder mapping and the interview guides developed in the first phase ensured comprehensive data collection.
Phase 3 (reporting), a qualitative analysis (deductive and inductive) was conducted, resulting in a matrix with challenges and needs throughout patient journeys. Findings were detailed in specific reports and validated against scientific literature.
Hict was responsible for the project management for mapping of each of the three separate oncology patient & HCP journeys as well as for the overarching program management of the projects.
More concrete Hict’s role in the project included
During the follow-up project Hict was responsible for
Through this project, insights into the patient and HCP journeys for mBC, mCRPC, and MM were gained:
The follow-up project provided HCPs with insights into the results of the journey mapping project and in the developed and adapted materials.
This collaborative effort reinforced the client’s commitment to patient-centered care while leveraging Hict’s expertise in journey mapping to deliver impactful results for patients and HCPs alike.
